
Class. 
Book 



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ANIMALS AND THEIR 






MASTERS 



BY THE 



Author of 'Friends in Council' 



NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION 






LONDON 
DALDY, ISBISTER, & CO. 

56, LUDGATE HILL 

18/S 






LONDON : 

PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., 

CITY ROAD. 



Library of Congress 
By transfer from 

State artment. 

MAY 3 1 1927 



*4 



^O 







TO THE 

BARONESS BURDETT COUTTS 

WHOSE EFFORTS TO PROMOTE THE HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS 
HAVE BEEN EARNEST AND UNREMITTING 



&Ins W&oxh. u §zbuntzb 



WITH MUCH REGARD AND RESPECT 



BV 



THE AUTHOR 



Nous debvons la justice aux hommes, et la grace et la 
benignite aux aultres creatures qui en peuvent estre 
capables : il y a quelque commerce entre elles et nous, 
et quelque obligation mutuelle. — Montaigne. 



£)u fityrfi Me SRei&en ber SebenbtQen 

$$ot mtr sorbet/ unb lefyrft mtcW metne 33rubet* 

Sm flttten SBuftf), in Suft unb Staffer lennen. 

©oetfje. 

The gentleness of chivalry, properly so called, depends on 
the recognition of the order and awe of lower and loftier 
animal life, first clearly taught in the myth of Chiron, and in 
his bringing up of Jason, /Esculapius, and Achilles, but most 
perfectly by Homer, in the fable of the horses of Achilles, 
and the part assigned to them, in relation to the death of 
his friend, and in prophecy of his own. There is, perhaps, 
in all the ' Iliad,' nothing more deep in significance — there 
is nothing in all literature more perfect in human tenderness, 
and honour for the mystery of inferior life — than the verses 
that describe the sorrow of the divine horses at the death of 
Patroclus, and the comfort given them by the greatest of the 
gods. — Ruskin. 



SOME TALK ABOUT 



ANIMALS and their MASTERS 



-*o+- 



INTRODUCTION. 

' I A HE conversations that follow took place 
•*- during an Easter vacation. The persons 
who joined in the conversations were those who 
have before been known as ' Friends in Council. ' 
They are Sir John Ellesmere, a lawyer of much 
renown ; Sir Arthur Goddphin, a statesman and 
a learned man ; Mr. Cranmer, an official person ; 
Mr. Mauleverer ; Mr. Milverton ; Mrs. Milverton ; 
Lady Ellesmere ; and myself, Mr. Milverton's 
private secretary. It was sometimes their fancy 
to take one theme as the subject of their conver- 
sation ; and this would be kept to as closely as 
the discursive nature of some of them, notably 
of Sir John Ellesmere, would allow. 

The reason why the particular subject of the 
treatment of animals was chosen on this occasion 

6 



2 ANIMALS AND 

is truly related by Mr. Milverton, who, after his 
escape from drowning, said to me exactly the same 
thing which he tells to the other friends. 

I cannot help thinking that the general question 
is one of the deepest interest, and that it is one 
which may be well treated in the way of dialogue. 
I at first urged Mr. Milverton to write an essay, 
or treatise, on the subject; upon the whole, I 
am glad that he did not adopt my advice, but 
brought out the points which he wished to urge in 
the course of these conversations with the other 
' Friends in Council.' 



THEIR MASTERS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Mr. Milverton. I want to consult you about 
something. But, first of all, I must tell you that 
there has nearly been a vacancy among the ' Friends 
in Council ! ' I was upset from a boat in the river 
the other day. 

Sir John Ellesmere. Good gracious, Milverton ! 
How could you be so foolish as to let such a careless 
person as yourself go out in a little boat — for I have 
no doubt it was a little one — on this perilous river ? 

Mr. Cranmer. I must say it was very imprudent. 

Mr. Mauleverer. One optimist the less : what a 
loss to the world ! 

Ellesmere. But tell us all about it. 

Milverton. My godson, Leonard Travers, was 
going out to the colonies ; and the day before he 
went, he asked me to go out for a row with him. 
I hate boating : one can't move about in a boat. 
What Dr. Johnson says of a ship is, to my mind, still 
more applicable to that greater evil, a boat. But 

B 2 



4 ANIMALS AND 

when a young fellow is going away, and one may 
never see him again, one can't refuse him anything. 
Ellcsmere. He was not so idiotic as to let you steer, 

was he ? 

Milverton. No : but I winked, or coughed, or 
pointed to some beautiful building on the side of the 
river, whereupon the wretched thing— I think they call 
it an outrigger— turned over ; and there was I in the 
water. Luckily it was not far from the shore, and 
somehow or other I got to land, having been im- 
mersed from head to foot. Not one of the least 
annoyances on such occasions, is the being accom- 
panied by a troop of boys to the first place of refuge. 
Ellcsmere. That is one of the most curious facts 
in natural history. In tropical climates an overladen 
mule falls down upon the sandy plain, never to rise 
again. Forthwith, in the dim distance, a black speck 
is seen to arise. It is the vulture which is coming 
for a feast. There is the same phenomenon to be 
observed with boys as with vultures. I met with a 
cab accident the other day. The axle broke, the 
wheels came in, on both sides of the cab, and we 
were at once a pitiable wreck. Thereupon, twenty or 
thirty boys, appearing to rise out of the ground, sur- 
rounded us. It is my nrm belief that misfortune breeds 
boys without any superfluous assistance from parents. 
Milverton. I must now tell you what were 



THEIR MASTERS. 5 

my thoughts, after my first thankfulness for deliver- 
ance from what was really a great peril. 

I have written several books in my lifetime. 

Ellesmere. Yes ! 

Milverton. And have discussed many subjects 
in those books. 

Ellesmere. Yes ! 

Sir Arthur Godolphin. You need not speak in 
quite so dolorous a tone Ellesmere. 

Ellesmere. It is always painful to listen to one's 
friends' confessions of their past errors and follies. 

Milverton. Never mind his nonsense. What I 
was going to say is, that I have never done justice 
to a subject which has the deepest interest for me, 
namely, the treatment of the lower animals by man. 
I said to myself, I will not go out in a boat again, 

or take a journey upon the railway, before I 

have put down my thoughts, and really said my 
say, upon the important question of the treatment of 
animals. 

Mauleverer. But what did you want to consult 
us about ? 

Ellesjnere. What a farce the consultation of friends 
is ! What a fellow generally wants, and is very angry 
if he does not get when he consults his friends, 
is an entire approval on their part of what he is 
resolved to do. 



6 ANIMALS AND 

Milvcrton. I wanted to consult you as to the best 
means of putting forward my views upon this question. 
Shall I try a pamphlet ? 

Ellesmere. No ; people can't abide pamphlets in 
these days. The pamphlet has vanished into space. 

Sir Arthur. M ore's the pity. Some of the best 
things that were written in our early days were put 
in the form of pamphlets. Do think of Sydney 
Smith's pamphlets, for instance. 

Ellesmere. But pamphleteering is a dead and 

gone thing. 

Milvcrton. I could introduce what I want to say 

into some report. 

Ellesmere. There is nothing so confidential as 
reports. If 1 wished to make love to a lady, and to 
make it most secretly, I should insert my love- 
letters into some official report, and then get it pub- 
lished in a blue book. Why not talk the matter 
out ? I know that conversations, even ours, are a 
perplexity to some people— those people who are 
always anxious for clear, undoubted views, for definite 
results, for something at once to enlighten and guide 
them without any trouble on their part. But I boldly 
say this, that the greatest and most secure portion 
of the teaching of the world has been done in and 
by conversation, or, to use a finer word, in and by 
dialogue. 



THEIR MASTERS. 7 

Here Sir John Ellesmere paused, and there was 
silence for a minute or two. 

Sir Arthur. I never heard this question so boldly 
stated ; but, upon my word, I think Ellesmere is 
right. Many of the most memorable things in lite- 
rature, and even in higher teaching than that of 
literature, have been given forth in dialogue. 

Milverton. Dialogue has its drawbacks ; but I 
think with Ellesmere that it has immense advan- 
tages. It happens particularly to suit me, because 
I am always anxious not to overstate, and to be 
tolerably secure in what I ultimately make up my 
mind to abide by. Now if I submit any of my 
thoughts to you, who are men of such varied natures 
and pursuits, and these thoughts pass muster with 
you, or do so without a damaging amount of ob- 
jection, I feel tolerably comfortable about them, and 
think that they may then be given to a wider circle. 
But I am not ready now. 

Ellesmere.- Yes, you are. If we allow you to get 
' ready/ as you call it, there will be a treatise. How is 
it that most pictures are spoiled — especially por- 
traits ? By working too much at them. I have often 
observed that there is a great likeness after the third 
sitting, which is gradually improved away. It is the 
effort at completeness which results in that i padding ' 



8 ANIMALS AND 

that is the ruin of so much £ood work. Give us 
your main thoughts, if only the headings that there 
would be of chapters. 

Milverton* First, I should point out the enormous 
extent of thoughtless and purposeless cruelty to 
animals. You really can have no adequate idea 
of this, until you have studied the subject^ when 
you will be able to appreciate the vastness of this 
area of cruelty. The subject would be divided under 
several heads : the cruelties inflicted upon beasts of 
draught and of burden ; the cruelties inflicted in the 
transit of animals used for food; the cruelties inflicted 
upon pets ; the cruelties perpetrated for what is 
called science ; and, generally, the careless and igno- 
rant treatment manifested in the sustenance of ani- 
mals from whom you have taken all means and 
opportunities of providing for themselves. It is a 
formidable catalogue, and I think that the details 
which I should furnish for each chapter would as- 
tonish and shock you beyond measure. 

Sir Arthur. Doubtless you have considered, in 
reference to this subject, the varied treatment of 
the lower animals, by the different races of mankind. 

Milverton. I have ; but I think that there is a 
broader way of looking at this part of the subject 
than that which has reference alone to difference of 
race. There is no one phrase which would embrace 



THEIR MASTERS. 9 

what I mean ; but, speaking generally, the difference 
of human conduct to animals depends largely upon 
the differences of culture in men, and still more upon 
the differences of their familiarity with animals. 

I am very glad, Sir Arthur, that you asked me 
the question which you have just asked; for it brings 
me naturally to a mode of viewing the subject, which 
seems to me of the utmost importance, and which I 
did not see the proper way of introducing. Now 
let us go into detail. When the familiarity is* 
extreme — when, for instance, the lower animal is con- 
stantly the companion of man, and is one of the 
family, as, for example, the horse with his Arab 
master — the man begins to understand the lower 
animal; and understanding of this sort necessarily 
produces kindness and sympathy. 

There is a familiarity of a much lower order, and 
this does not necessarily produce kindness, unless it is 
accompanied by some culture. 

Then, there is culture of a high kind, such as exists 
in the higher classes everywhere. That amount of 
culture w r ould lead to a thoroughly good treatment of 
animals, if it were but joined with the needful 
familiarity. 

There is always something rather hazy in any axioms 
of a general kind that one may lay down. A very 
slight, yet significant, illustration will carry home my 



io ANIMALS AND 

meaning to you. There is a thing called the bearing 
rein. It is an atrocity when applied to a draught 
horse. It contradicts every sound principle con- 
nected with this subject. The coachman, who has some 
familiarity with the animal, but not the Arabian 
familiarity, is uncultured, and has not the slightest 
notion of the real effect of this rein. The cultivated 
master or mistress, who knows, or might by a few 
words be taught, the mischief of this rein, and the 
discomfort which it causes to the animal, is often so 
unfamiliar with the animal, that he or she is quite 
unobservant of the way in which it is treated, and 
does not understand its mode of expressing its dis- 
comfort. You will notice, on the other hand, that, as 
a general rule, the educated man who drives his own 
horses, and learns to know something about them, 
slackens this bearing rein, or leaves it off altogether. 

Now this comparatively trivial instance is capable, 
I can assure you, of the most general and wide ap- 
plication. The one class does not know, the other 
does not heed. 

That most accomplished of modern political econo- 
mists, Bastiat, points out how a class of work falls 
into routine, and into the sphere of action of the 
least instructed classes : — 

Un ensemble de travaux qui suppose, a l'origine, des 
connaissances tres-variees, par le seul benefice des siccles, 



THEIR MASTERS. II 

tombe, sous le nom de routine^ dans la sphere d'action des 
classes les moins instruites ; c'est ce qui est arrive pour 
l'agriculture. Des procedes agricoles, qui, dans l'antiquite, 
meriterent a ceux qui les ont reveles au monde les hon- 
neurs de l'apotheose, sont aujourd'hui l'heritage, et 
presque le monopole, des hommes les plus grossiers, et a tel 
point que cette branche si importante de l'industrie humaine 
est, pour ainsi dire, entierement soustraite aux classes bie7i 
e levees. * 

This remark, as you see, applies to agriculture. I 
am going to apply it to the treatment of animals. By 
the way, I must just note that Bastiat's censure does 
not apply to England so much as to France ; for it 
cannot be maintained that with us agriculture is the 
monopoly of the most coarse men. This correction, 
however, of Bastiat's statement will not detract from 
the force of my illustration, but will enhance its value. 
If you had the intelligence of cultured people, joined 
to the familiarity with animals which the ordinary 
practical farmer possesses, you would then have an 
admirable treatment of stock, and that includes a 
humane treatment. Pretty nearly half the diseases of 
the domestic animals are the result of a direct viola- 
tion of the laws of nature upon the part of the owners 
of the animals. The loss to the nation is immense; 
and I am convinced that there is no way out of this 

* Bastiat, ' Harmonies economiques. ' 



12 ANIMALS AND 

difficulty, but by the union in the owner of culture 
and a certain familiarity with the animal which he 
owns. 

What I have just said is substantially the answer to 
your question, Sir Arthur. You ask me to explain the 
varied treatment of animals by different races. I reply 
to you — Do not look at the question as a matter of 
race. There are higher laws which govern it than 
those resulting from difference of race. I would not, 
however, pedantically lay down as a dictum that race 
has nothing whatever to do with the matter. Dif- 
ference of race may have some influence, but not that 
dominating influence which the other causes I have 
intimated possess. 

It is always pleasant to indulge in a little person- 
ality. Here is Ellesmere. I suppose everyone who 
knows him would admit that he is fonder of the lower 
animals than of men — at least he finds much less fault 
with these lower animals. But he is not familiar with 
them, except with our clog Fairy, and his equestrian 
knowledge is not quite on a par with his legal know- 
ledge. I might venture to assert that he has not 
driven a pair of horses since he left college. I ob- 
served that his coachman was as absurd as most 
other coachmen about this detestable bearing rein. 
When Ellesmere was first made Attorney- General — 

Ellesmere. How I do hate personality ! 



THEIR MASTERS. 13 

Milverton. — the bearing rein was tightened in 
honour of the master's rising fortunes. Poor Elles- 
mere never noticed this. What is the good, you see, 
of fondness for animals without knowledge or observa- 
tion of their ways ? I hate interference with other 
people's affairs, but I could not stand this tightening 
of the bearing rein, and so I attacked Eliesmere him- 
self upon the point. Moreover, I ventured to discuss 
with him the arrangements of his stable. They were 
abominable. Of course his horses were always ill. 
Ventilation was a thing unthought of. I must do 
Eliesmere the justice to say that he listened to me 
very patiently, and provided remedies for all the evils 
I noticed. Now is not this a true bill, Eliesmere ? 

Eliesmere. Yes : I must own it is ; and I wish you 
could know the trouble I had in persuading my coach- 
man to discard the bearing rein. 

Milverton. But, seriously speaking, though my 
instances may have been trivial, are they not suffi- 
cient ? I should not like to worry you with all the 
details which go to prove ill-management, both as 
regards economy and humanity, of draught horses 
and of farming stock generally. I re-state my first 
statement, which is to this effect : that perfect 
familiarity with the animal will almost supply the 
place of culture ; that imperfect familiarity requires to 
be joined with culture on the part of the owner ; and, 



14 ANIMALS AND 

finally, that culture without the requisite familiarity 
admits of barbarous things being done, or rather per- 
mitted, by the owner, from sheer want of thought and 
observation. 

Ellesmere. He lays down the law, doesn't he ? One 
would think he had been brought up as a farrier, a 
veterinary surgeon, or a cow-doctor. 

Milverton. I hope I have not been arrogant ; but 
though not a farrier nor a cow-doctor, it has been a part 
of my business, for many years, to consider the treat- 
ment of animals — a somewhat hard fate for one so 
sensitive as I am as regards their sufferings. But, 
perhaps, the knowledge I have gained may be made of 
some use, and so I must not mind the pain that I have 
endured in gaining it. 

Sir Arthur's question diverted me from the branch 
of the subject I was next going to consider ; which 
was the transit of animals. The cruelties of this 
transit have increased, by reason of the changed modes 
of locomotion. Perhaps, however, it would be safer 
to say that new forms of suffering have been intro- 
duced by this change, to alleviate which the proper 
remedies have not yet been fully provided. The 
Transit of Animals Committee, of which I was a 
member, made a beginning in the way of improve- 
ment as regards this transit ; and their recommenda- 
tions have been, to some extent, adopted by the 



THEIR MASTERS. 15 

Government. But much remains to be done. I will 
give you the most recent case within my knowledge of 
the inhuman treatment of animals in transit. 

A few weeks ago there arrived at one of our ports a 
German vessel, with 1,793 sheep alive, and 5 dead. 
On inquiry, it was found that 646 sheep had been 
thrown overboard during the voyage. Of course this 
was put down to stress of weather ; but the real truth 
was, that the poor animals had been most inhumanely 
crowded together, without any of those provisions 
against over-crowding which were laid down, as 
absolutely necessary, by our committee. In fact, the 
646 sheep were suffocated. You will observe it was a 
German vessel, and all that our Government could do 
was to lay the facts before the German authorities, 
expressing a hope that when the attention of the 
German Government should be given to the regula- 
tions which the English Government have adopted in 
this matter, and to the cruel sufferings which are 
experienced by animals during transit through over- 
crowding and faulty ventilation, steps might be taken to 
compel shipowners to adopt contrivances which would 
lessen the amount of ill-usage to which animals are 
frequently exposed during their passage from Germany 
to this country. 

Elles7?iere. Bismarck would soon set these matters 
to rights, if he once gave his attention to them. 



1 6 ANIMALS AND 

Cranmer. But surely, Milverton, the remedy for 
these inhumanities, which result in such great losses, 
will be provided by the shipper ? 

Milverton, There enters the peculiar delusion 
which besets men like yourself, Cranmer, who believe 
wholly in certain dicta of political economy. You 
think, or you talk as if you thought, that every man 
has a plenary power of protecting himself and his own 
interests, whereas I maintain that the individual is 
often perfectly powerless. The owner of those sheep, 
doubtless, grieves over his loss — is perhaps half- 
ruined by that loss, and would, as you contend, take 
care not to run the risk of any such loss again. But 
in practice this is not found to be the case. A man 
brings his sheep to the place of export. He cannot 
afford to keep them long there, waiting for a vessel 
that should be properly prepared to carry animals, if 
indeed there exists such a ship engaged in the trade 
at that port. He is not a shipowner, and has pro- 
bably but little influence with shipowners. It would 
require great skill, energy, and devotion to a purpose 
foreign from his pursuits, to organise a combination 
of sheep dealers, who might insist upon provision 
being made in cattle-carrying ships for the proper 
treatment of animals. 

I made inquiries, from experienced persons, upon 
this very point. I asked whether this owner of the 



THEIR MASTERS. 17 

suffocated sheep would be likely to be able to pro- 
vide, by any management on his part, against a 
recurrence of this fearful and cruel loss. They told 
me that they thought not — that he would be obliged 
to use the means of transit provided at his port, 
whether they were good or whether they were bad. 

This is one of the many instances in which, as I 
contend, the only remedy is to be found in Govern- 
mental action. 

Sir Arthur, I agree with you in the main, Mil- 
verton; but you slightly exaggerate here. In the 
course of time a remedy would be found. Gradually 
combination would arise among the sheepowners : 
competition would come in. New vessels would be 
built, in which, from the first, when it would be far 
less expensive, arrangements would be made for the 
more humane carrying on of the traffic. 

Milverton. Well, it may be so : but observe all 
that you say is hypothetical, and is to happen, if ever 
it does happen, * in the course of time ; ' whereas the 
German Government can prescribe, as our Govern- 
ment has prescribed, certain regulations which would 
at once go some way to attain the desired object. 

You must not expect the owner of the cattle to take 
excessive heed of the loss that even he himself sus- 
tains by unwise and cruel modes of transit. He is 
accustomed to that loss : he knew of its extent when 

c 



j 8 ANIMALS AND 

he first entered into the business : he looks upon it as 
a result of the nature of things ; and, finally, what is 
of most importance, he calculates that his competitors 
suffer exactly the same amount of loss, and therefore 
it is of but little matter, commercially speaking. It is 
only when an exceptional loss occurs to himself, that 
his attention is aroused to the general loss arising from 
the ill-managed transit of animals. But for the public 
it should be a matter of daily concern, and of much 
interest to them, that this transit should be well-regu- 
lated. Comparing the whole business with that most 
fearful and wicked one, of the transit of slaves, their 
numerous deaths in ' the middle passage ' was of very 
much less importance to the. owner of the slave-carrying 
vessel, than to the slave-importing colony or country. 
You cannot doubt that the public suffers greatly 
from this imperfect and inhuman mode of transit — in 
the loss of those animals which die, in the deteriora- 
tion of those that survive, and in the probable intro- 
duction of diseased meat. On those grounds alone I 
think we have a right to ask for the interference of 
Government. It is very probable that, at the port of 
entry in England, the price of meat was slightly in- 
creased on the next market-day after that German 
vessel had arrived, by reason of the loss of these 646 
sheep that were expected. Many a poor housewife 
may have grumbled and fretted at this increased 



THEIR MASTERS. 19 

price, and blamed the butcher, little imagining that it 
was all the fault of some ©efyetmratf) in distant Berlin, 
who had never taken the pains to look after a matter 
that properly belonged to his department. 

I may also notice how injurious is the absence of 
the proper regulations for cattle-transit to the export- 
ing countries. Of course their cattle come to be looked 
upon unfavourably in the markets of the world ; and 
therefore the improvement of their cattle-carrying 
ships is a thing which concerns the whole of their 
agricultural population. 

Ellesmere. I hate a fellow who is always chock 
full of facts. No sooner does one produce a good 
argument (I really thought Cranmer was going to 
make a good case), than our fact-full friend whips out 
some unpleasant fact, which knocks over the whole of 
the argument. I must say that Milverton has the best 
of the contest. 

Mauleverer. I have not hitherto said a word. I 
know as well as possible that whatever I should say 
in the way of opposition or cavil, would be met on 
Milverton's part by some of these unpleasant facts ; 
and so I shall join in the conversation by coming to 
his aid. I like what you call the lower animals, and 
though I think that men are nearly incorrigible, some- 
thing may be done by educating them a little better, in 

regard to the humane treatment of animals. I am not 

c 2 



20 ANIMALS AND 

a great frequenter of preachers now ; but, upon a 
moderate calculation, I think I have heard, in my 
time, 1,320 sermons ; and I do not recollect that in 
any one of them I ever heard the slightest allusion 
made to the conduct of men towards animals. I think 
that it would not have been a wasteful expenditure 
of exhortation if, in two per cent, of these sermons, 
the humane treatment of animals had been the main 
subject of the discourse. 

Ellesmere. Very good, Mauleverer. The great de- 
fect of preaching nowadays is, that the sermons 
appear to be built upon the supposition that the 
preacher is introducing Christianity for the first time 
to the notice of his hearers. 

A f liver ton. Returning to the treatment of beasts of 
draught and burden, I sometimes think that it was a 
misfortune for the world that the horse was ever sub- 
jugated. The horse is the animal that has been the worst 
treated by man ; and his subjugation has not been 
altogether a gain to mankind. The oppressions which 
he has aided in were, from the earliest ages, excessive. 
He it is to whom we owe much of the rapine of those 
ages called ' the dark ages/ And I have a great notion 
that he has been the main instrument of the bloodiest 
warfare. I wish men had to drag their own cannon 
up-hill ; I doubt whether they would not'rebel at that. 
And a commander, obliged to be on foot throughout 
the campaign, would very soon get tired of war. 



THEIR MASTERS. 21 

To what a height of material civilization a nation 
might arrive without the horse, was to be seen in 
Mexico and Peru, when the Spaniards first entered 
and devastated those regions, where they found thou- 
sands of houses well built, and with gardens attached 
to them. I doubt whether there was a single Mexican 
so ill-lodged as millions of our poor countrymen are. 
So you see, when I almost regret the subjugation of 
the horse, I assume that civilization would not thereby 
have certainly been retarded, 

Ellesmere. I do not object to the horse having 
been subjugated ; but what I regret is, that he does not 
make a noise. Considering how he is wronged, he is 
the most quiet and uncomplaining creature in the 
world. Observe the cab-horse quietly lifting up one 
of his fore-feet, just showing to the observant by- 
stander how full it is of pain (you see I do observe 
animals sometimes) ; and then think what a row any 
other animal would make in a similar condition, and 
how noisily he would remonstrate against the needless 
brutality of his driver. His conduct and its results 
form a notable instance of the folly of being silent 
about our grievances. The busy world pays attention 
only to those who loudly complain, and accords that 
attention in exact proportion to the loudness and per- 
sistency of the complaint. If there had been a Roche- 
foucauld, or an Ellesmere, among the horses (for, 
doubtless, like all other animals, they have a way of 



22 ANIMALS AND 

communicating with one another), what judicious 
maxims he might have instilled into them ! 

There have been a few wise horses in the world. I 
knew one myself of a sorrel colour. He did not kick, 
or rear, or pursue any of those fantastic devices for 
getting rid of his rider ; but when he objected to him, 
he always rubbed him off against a wall or a cart-wheel. 
No human being, who made himself objectionable to 
this horse, was ever known to ' remain? You do not 
understand the allusion. A Frenchman, who had 
taken to riding in England, was asked how he suc- 
ceeded in this mode of locomotion, so novel to him. 
He replied — 

( When he go easy I am (fy suis) ; but when he 
jomp hard, I do not remain.' 

Now nobody could ' remain' upon the horse I have 
been telling you about. But, alas ! a wise horse, like 
a wise man, often keeps all his wisdom to himself; 
and this wise sorrel (was not the wisest horse that 
Gulliver met with in his sojourn with the Houy- 
hnhnms a sorrel nag ?) did not impart his secret to his 
brother bays or greys. 

Sir Arthur. I say, Milverton, what about pets ? 

Ellesmere. Yes, let us question and cross-question 
him, and not allow him to keep exactly to systematic 
discourse. That is the way in which truth is best 
arrived at, 



THEIR MASTERS. 23 

Milverton. It goes against the grain with me, to 
speak against the keeping of pets ; and for this espe- 
cial reason, that the young people who keep pets are 
generally, in after life, those who are the best friends 
to animals. But, if I must answer the question truth- 
fully, I do think that there is a great deal of cruelty in 
keeping pets — not so much directly as indirectly. 
There are the cruel devices by which pets are caught 
and tamed. Moreover, we make pets of creatures 
which were never meant to be made pets of. I allude 
particularly to the feathered creation. A miserable 
creature, to my mind, is a caged bird. I do not know 
that I ever saw a countenance more expressive of dig- 
nified misery, and of its owner having known better 
days, than that of an eagle which I once saw in a cage 
about five eet square. Of course what I have just 
said does not in the least apply to those creatures, 
such as cats and dogs, which really appear to like the 
society of men. 

ILllesmere. I am always afraid lest dogs should 
come to learn our language. If they ever do, they will 
cut us entirely. Everything seems clever and un- 
common-place in a language of which you know but 
little ; and that is why we appear such clever and 
interesting fellows to dogs. If they knew our lan- 
guage well, would any dog sit out a public dinner ? 
Would any dog remain in the nursery, listening to the 



24 ANIMALS AND 

foolish talk of nurses and mothers ? I am not quite 
sure whether our Fairy here would stay so resolutely 
with us, if she understood all we said. 

Sir Arthur, There is a fact which militates 
against your theory, Ellesmere, and that is, that a 
colley dog understands his master better than other 
dogs understand their masters, and yet he is true to 
him, and does not cut him. 

Ellesmere. No ! it makes for me. The shep- 
herd uses certain signs, and they are sensible signs. 
They indicate certain judicious things to be done. 
The dog approves of the proposed transactions, and 
willingly takes his part in them. He gives his mas- 
ter credit for judicious talk at home, which the 
dog does not understand, but supposes to be equally 
clever with that which takes place between himself 
and his master on the hill-side. 

Mauleverer. Going back for a moment to the pets 
of which Milverton disapproves, I hope that he 
includes gold-fish. When I see those wretched 
creatures moving round and round about in a 
glass bowl, I don't know how it is, but I always 
think of the lives of official and ministerial people, 
doing their routine work in a very confined space, 
under very unpleasant and continuous observation, 
never suffered to retire into private life amongst 
comfortable weeds and stones and mud, but always 



THEIR MASTERS. 25 

having the eyes of the public and the press upon 
them. 

Ellesmere. That is a very sound simile of Maule- 
verer's, and it seems to me that I ought to have 
seen the similitude before. I will treat you to another 
simile of equal exactness. Whenever I see a fa- 
vourite cat, with its so-called master or mistress, I 
always feel that the cat considers the master or mis- 
tress as a hired companion. The cat feels that it 
has somebody to open the door for it, to find out the 
sunniest window-sill for it, and in fact to perform a 
thousand little offices belonging to the duties of hired 
companionship, in return for which the cat purrs out 
some wages, and is content always to be in a graceful 
attitude, as an additional payment to the hired human 
companion. 

Sir Arthur. Don't calumniate cats, Ellesmere; I 
once had a cat which — 

Ellesmere. Forgive me for interrupting, but I must 
tell you something which I may forget to tell you if 
I do not say it now. The word ' calumniate ' puts me 
in mind of it. It relates to calumny, or rather, per- 
haps, to scandal. It will be worth the whole of the 
rest of our conversation to-day. 

Some girls were asked by one of our inspectors of 
schools, at a school examination, whether they knew 
what was the meaning of the word scandal. One 



26 ANIMALS AND 

little girl stepped vigorously forward, and, throwing 
her hand up in that semaphore fashion by which 
children indicate the possession of knowledge, at- 
tracted the notice of the inspector. He desired her 
to answer the question ; upon which she uttered these 
memorable words : ' Nobody does nothing, and every- 
body goes on telling of it everywhere? 

I once read an essay of Milverton's about calumny, 
which has not been published, I believe; and it was 
divided into sections and sub-sections, and was meant 
to be very exhaustive. There was nothing in it, 
however, equal to this child's saying, which in fact 
reminds one of Bacon, Swift, and Macchiavelli all 
compounded together. Listen to it again. ' Nobody 
does nothing 9 (regard the force of that double nega- 
tive), c and everybody goes on'' (note the continuity of 
slander) l telling of it everywhere ' (no reticence, you 
see, as regards time or place). I am sure that some 
member of that child's family, father, or mother, or 
sister, or brother, had been subject to village scandal, 
and the child had thought over the matter deeply. I 
have good authority for the story. It was told me 
just before I came here by Sir George . 

Mauleverer. Upon my word it is admirable. That 
child and I should agree in our views of human 
life. 

Ellesmere. But what about your cat, Sir Arthur ? 



THEIR MASTERS. 27 

Sir Arthur. Everything will sound so tame, 
Ellesmere, after your story. It was merely that I 
had a cat that would walk out with me like a dog, 
and would sit for hours on my study-table, watching 
me at work. 

EUesmere. Yes ; it was one of those cases, not 
uncommon, in which the master or the mistress 
becomes very much attached to a loveable and 
agreeable hired companion. I never said that cats 
were devoid of affection, only that they thoroughly 
understand their superiority to the human beings 
whom they take into their employment. 

No one, without experience of the difficulty, can 
imagine how difficult it is to follow and report con- 
versation ; and how it strays from one topic to an- 
other, in the most eccentric fashion. After Sir John 
Ellesmere had made the last remark, all the ' Friends 
in Council ' seemed to be devoured by a desire to 
tell remarkable anecdotes, quite within their own 
observation, of wonderful cats, dogs, and horses, and 
even of birds that they had known. Two or three 
of them talked at the same time, chiefly addressing 
their immediate neighbours ; and I failed to get at 
any connected thread of conversation. I remember 
that both Dickens and Lord Lytton were spoken 



28 ANIMALS AND 

of, as having had great appreciation of the intelli- 
gence of birds. Then the doings, which were al- 
most incredible to me, of a certain dog were spoken 
of. This dog had belonged to a young man, known 
to most of the company present, who had, somehow 
or other, gone very wrong lately, and had given his 
parents a great deal of trouble. And then the whole 
conversation was about him. Sir John Ellesmere 
took his part ; and, speaking generally of families, 
said that it was wonderful to him to see how well 
they agreed together, considering the immense diffi- 
culties of the position. My chief, who always 
delights to hear anyone defended, and excuses made 
for anybody, followed on the same side. I think I 
can report the conversation from this stage accu- 
rately : — 

Ellesmere. Here are people shut up together in the 
same house, having, probably, very different tastes 
and very different ideas on all matters of human in- 
terest, and being so familiar with one another that the 
forms of politeness have been somewhat broken down ; 
and you expect all these good people to get on well 
together, merely because there is a close tie of relation- 
ship between them. Why ! I do not find that a man 
and his wife alwavs get on well together; and I am 



THEIR MASTERS. 29 

told that here there is no duality, but absolute unity 
of persons. 

Milverton. There is one thing greatly in favour of 
fathers and mothers. They at first seem to be hardly 
treated by the laws of the universe. They have almost 
always to restrain, and control, and give unwelcome ad- 
vice ; and, in short, must, to a certain extent, make 
themselves disagreeable, by the pressure on their own 
minds from their own experience. There is foolish talk 
in this day, as there has been in all time, about the 
singular rebelliousness of young people. I have been 
hunting through Pliny's Letters to find his views about 
animals. I did not come to anything that Ellesmere 
would call a ' good find ;' but I came upon a passage 
relating to the conduct of young people in his day. 
He is writing a letter about the great grief which he 
has felt upon the death of a young man, named Junius 
Avitus— who, according to Pliny, was a perfect young 
man. But then Pliny goes on to show how different 
Avitus was from other young men. Please give me 
the book, Johnson. Here is the passage : — 

Rarum hoc adolescentibus nostris. Nam qiwtus- 
quisque vel cetati alterius, vel auctoritati, ut minor, 
cedit f Statim sapiunt, statim sciunt oinnia : neminem 
verentur, imiiantur neminem, atque ipsi sibi exempla 
sunt. Sed non Avitus. 

Of course this juvenile presumption is hard for parents 



30 ANIMALS AND 

and seniors to bear ; and we must admit that their re- 
action against it does tend to diminish love on the part 
of the children. But there is, if I may so say, an after- 
math of good harvest for the parents. As the sons and 
daughters go on advancing in life, they are nearly sure 
to recognize more and more the worth and affection of 
their parents. Anybody who lives some time in the 
world, and has opportunity of observing the develop- 
ment of families, must be struck with this, if he is an 
observant man at all. For instance ; you hear sons, 
who, as you know, gave fathers much trouble at certain 
periods of their lives, now speak of those fathers with 
the tenderest affection. Indeed, I might almost venture 
to say that every day that passes over a child's head, 
whether son or daughter, makes him or her more ap- 
preciative of the love of parents. The greatest 
' scamps,' as you call them, ultimately feel this — more, 
perhaps, even than the good children ; and I doubt 
not that this very boy we have been talking of, who is 
at present a great trouble it must be owned, will here- 
after speak of his father, to whom he has given all this 
trouble, in the tenderest of terms. 

Lady Ellesmere, It makes such a difference, having 
children of one's own. I do not think it is any parti- 
cular instance of one's former conduct that is wont to 
occur to one's mind. The whole tone of mind be- 
comes altered as regards the parental relationship. 



THEIR MASTERS. 31 

Cranmer. Oh, how true and how sad, Milverton, is 
what you have just said ! I was, what I believe is 
called, a good son. I never thwarted my father in any 
serious matter ; but I once behaved very ill to him ; 
and the recollection of this has come back to me a 
hundred times. Though you may not think it, from 
looking at me now, at the age of seventeen I was a 
most delicate youth, and there were doubts whether I 
was not consumptive. My mother died early, and my 
father played, as far as a man could, the mother's part 
to me. One of the things he ( led me a life about/ as 
I then used to express it, was about warm clothing, 
and I recollect on one particular occasion we had a 
quarrel (I almost think it was the only one) about a 
certain garment he wished me to wear, and which I 
would not. You know how youths do not like to differ 
from other youths, and are ashamed of being ( coddled/ 
as they call it. The result was that I was very rude, 
and resolutely disobedient. As I said before, this 
little incident (no ; I cannot call it ' little ') has come 
back a hundred times to my mind ; and, indeed, I 
seldom look at my father's picture without thinking 
how ill I behaved to the good man on that occasion. 
If the opportunity would but come over again, what 
amount of clothing would I not put on to please him 
who has gone, and who probably cared for me more 
than any other human being has since done ! 



„ 2 ANIMALS AND 

Mr. Cranmer, whom we always look upon as 
rather a hard man, at any rate as a very dry sort of 
man, was visibly affected when he told us this little 
anecdote. Some of us instantly made efforts to 
turn the conversation into other channels. I be- 
lieve the weather, that never-failing subject, came 
in for its share of talk. Then the conversation 
languished, the ladies made a move, and the main * 
subject of the discourse was postponed to the after- 
noon. 



THEIR MASTERS. 33 



CHAPTER II. 

It was not to be expected that our friends, most 
of whom are connected in some way with poli- 
tical life, should not at times talk politics. In 
general, I have avoided giving any of these discus- 
sions, which must of necessity be of an ephemeral 
character. But, this morning political talk led to a 
discussion which I thought worth recording. 

Some public documents had been very severely 
criticised by some of ' the Friends,' especially by Sir 
John Ellesmere 3 when Mr. Milverton, taking up 
the defence, said : — 

Milverton. You all talk as if it were the easiest 
thing possible to write clearly, and to say what one 
really means to say ; whereas, it is one of the most 
difficult things in the world. Now let me state the 
difficulties. In the first place, to write clearly, you 
must have clear ideas. In the second place, they 
must be consistent ideas, In the third place, there 

D 



34 ANIMALS AND 

must be a logical sequence, and the several parts of 
the arguments must not overlap one another. Then 
you must know how to construct a sentence, which, to 
quote a favourite expression of Goethe's, ' is not every- 
body's affair.' Then there comes the difficulty of the 
choice of words, greatly added to by the fact that the 
words you choose must have the same signification in 
the minds of the person or persons addressed as these 
words have with you. 

With regard to the choice of words, and its telling 
effect, I should like to give you an example. Please, 
Ellesmere, hand me down Barrow's Sermons. They 
are close to you there. Now, listen to this extraordi- 
nary passage, which is extraordinary, simply because 
every word in it is well chosen. I defy you to find a 
fault in it, as regards the choice of words. And note 
how well it might be translated into any other lan- 
guage :— - 

We have but a very narrow strait of time to pass over, 
but we shall land on the firm and vast continent of eternity ; 
when we shall be free from all the troublesome agitations, 
from all the perilous storms, from all the nauseous qualms of 
this navigation ; death (which may be very near, which can- 
not be far off) is a sure haven from all the tempests of life, a 
safe refuge from all the persecution of the world, an infallible 
medicine of all the diseases of our mind, and of our state : it 
will enlarge us from all restraints, it will discharge all our 
debts, it will ease us from all our toils, it will stifle all our 



THEIR MASTERS, 35 

cares, it will veil all our disgraces, it will still all our com- 
plaints, and bury all our disquiets ; it will wipe all tears * 
from our eyes, and banish all sorrow from our hearts ; it 
perfectly will level all conditions, setting the high and low, 
the rich and poor, the wise and ignorant, all together upon 
even ground ; smothering all the pomp and glories, swallow- 
ing all the wealth and treasures of the world. * 

Sir Arthur. It is, indeed, a transcendent passage. 

Milverton. In addition to all the other requisites 
J have named for good writing, there should, through- 
out, be a divine accuracy. 

Ellesmere, I have known many queer marriages 
among my human friends and acquaintances, many as 
queer between substantives and adjectives, especially 
where substantives have been ill-mated with adjectives ; 
but I have seldom known a noble adjective to be wed- 
ded to so commonplace a mate as when ' divine ' is 
applied to l accuracy.' 

Milverton. I shall not withdraw the adjective. A 
very large part of the evils of the world can be traced 
up to inaccuracy. It is the chief source of misunder- 
standing, misrepresentation, and of most of those dire- 
ful words which begin with that unhappy prefix, 
1 mis.' 

Cranmer. I never heard the difficulties of writing 
so fearfully set forth. 

* Barrow's Sermons. 

D 2 



36 ANIMALS AND 

Milverton. I must proceed further. I must add, 
that most public documents are not the outcome of 
one man's mind, but are the result of much conjoint 
writing and intermeddling. I will also say, that ours 
is a most difficult language wherein to write accurately. 
Again (I do not know when I shall have done with my 
additions) : you must consider that the writing of these 
State papers is a very different thing from ordinary 
literary work. 

Sir Arthur, I understand what you mean. I have 
been reading a great deal of Schiller lately ; and I 
have found only one or two passages which I cannot 
understand. 

Milverton. Wherever there is passionate or emo- 
tional writing, the passion or emotion explains so 
much, and you have, comparatively, little difficulty. 

Sir Arthur. That is just what I was going to say. 
When I take up a German newspaper I am consider- 
ably puzzled. 

Ellesmere. Yes ; and, perhaps, it would be worse 
if you took up a German State paper. 

Milverton. The great difficulty is to write well 
about matters connected with real life where precision 
of terms is absolutely necessary. 

Please do not think it pedantic on my part, it I ven- 
ture to lay down what should be the conclusions de- 
rived from our talk on this subject. They are three. 



THEIR MASTERS. 37 

1st. We should cultivate, with care, the art of ex- 
pressing what we may have to say in writing. And 
this should be done early. The writing of themes is, 
in my mind, one of the most absurd employments in 
the world. You ask boys to evolve ideas from their 
own consciousness, upon subjects of which they know 
nothing. You might teach the power of expression in 
quite another way ; and in a secure way. Relate 
facts to them, and make them restate those facts. Give 
them a portion of history to read, and direct them to 
make a summary of it. In short, exercise their 
powers of expression, if you like, to any extent ; but do 
not ask them for ideas. 

2nd. Now I come to the work of the grown-up man. 
Whenever there is work to be done which requires 
conjoint counsel, and is to be the result of much clash- 
ing of opinion, let one man be entrusted with the 
drawing-up of the ultimate document, which is to be 
put forward to the world, and to be commented on 
by it. 

Partnership is a good thing in its way, and is 
available for many affairs, but not for writing. 

3rd. Make much of the man who, whether by natural 
gifts, or, as it is more probable, by careful study, has 
attained this rare faculty of expressing precisely what 
he means to say, or what others wish him to say. 
That man is worth a great deal of money, whether he 



38 ANIMALS AND 

is to be found in a Government department or a mer- 
chant's office. He it is who should write the letters, 
though he may not be a man capable of forming the 
most judicious opinions on the questions at issue. 

Ellesnicre. In order that he may not be overworked, 
and that all the fine qualities of this admirable man 
may not be blunted by over-use, let us diminish the 
frequency of the arrival of the post. I have just found 
the most lovely passage in an old novel — not so very 
old, though — published thirty-five or forty years ago. 

Cranmer. I thought that when last we separated, 
it was agreed that at our next meeting we were to con- 
tinue to discuss the subject of the treatment of animals. 

Ellesmere. Oh, yes ; but what is the good of hav- 
ing a set subject for discussion if one may not have 
the pleasure of breaking away from it sometimes ? 
Besides, whatever irrelevancy I may commit, Mil- 
verton is sure to be able to show that it bears closely 
upon the subject in hand. 

Sir Arthur. Give us the i lovely passage ' at once. 

Ellesmere. It was something of this sort : 6 She 
looked wistfully at the mantelpiece, and sighed 
when she saw that there was no letter for her, for 
she knew that the half-weekly post had come in. ? I 
laid down the book, and sighed too, thinking of the 
happy days when, at some favoured places in Eng- 
land, there was only a half-weekly post. 



THEIR MASTERS, 39 

Mauleverer. Some foolish people are always 
fancying that they should like to have lived in some 
age previous to their own, or wishing that they had 
not been born just yet, and that their time was to 
come in some subsequent age. 

Lady Ellesmere, I suppose I am one of those 
i foolish persons. 7 I do not agree with my husband in 
his horror at receiving letters, which, as you know, is 
a grievance he is never tired of mourning over ; but 
I often fancy how delightful life must have been in 
quieter times, when everybody was not in such a 
hurry ; when short intervals of distance produced 
great changes of scene ; when small things which 
happened to one were events, and were well talked 
over and thought over. Now, nothing makes much 
impression on our — 

Ellesmere. Say, kaleidoscopic minds. You just 
give a shake of the tube, and there is another set of 
patterns. I don't object to this. 

Lady Ellesmere. But surely, John, you would 
like to have lived in a time when the world was less 
built over. I often subtract, in my mind's eye, all 
the new houses at some beautiful spot, and see what 
it must have been in former days, and then imagine 
the douce, pleasant life which the few dwellers in 
that beautiful place must have led. 

Mauleverer. An utter delusion. Remember how 



40 ANIMALS AND 

strong must have been the hatreds and the dislikes 
when people lived together in very small communities, 
and when there was next to no movement from the 
localities in which they dwelt. 

Sir Arthur. As for Ellesmere, his life might 
have been a douce one (to adopt Lady Ellesmere's 
word), but it would have been a very short one in 
most of the previous ages of the world. There is 
no man of my acquaintance who would have been 
more certain to have been burnt for heresy, or hanged 
for treason, than Ellesmere. Is it possible to con- 
ceive that he would have been able to restrain him- 
self from taking objections to the dominant views of 
religion and politics, whatever they might have been ? 
and taking objections would have been torture or 
death, most probably the latter. This thought re- 
conciles me to a post coming in six times in the day, 
and to the way in which (for I agree with Lady Elles- 
mere) most of the beautiful spots of the earth have 
been deformed by modern houses. 

Milverton. These preliminary remarks naturally 
lead up to my subject. 

Ellesmere. I told you so. Nothing can keep his 
subject down. 

Milverton. I spoke the other day of a new set of 
sufferings endured by animals in consequence of new 
modes of locomotion being invented ; but, on the 



THEIR MASTERS, 41 

other hand, it must be admitted that a whole series of 
atrocities in reference to animals has entirely passed 
away. I allude to the cruel way in which they were 
tortured and slain for medicinal remedies. You can 
hardly take up any old work upon medicinal recipes 
without coming immediately upon some ridiculous 
mode of cure, in which some inhumanity is to be 
practised upon an animal to satisfy the superstitious 
notions of the age. We have in the house a Welsh 
work, named ' Meddygon Myddfai.' It is full of these 
horrors. 

Sir Arthur. Yes ; I have heard of the work. It 
is supposed to date from the time of the Druids. 

Milverton. True ; but do you doubt that it was 
believed in until quite modern times ? and even 
now there are country districts where these atro- 
cious remedies are entirely believed in as articles of 
faith. 

Mauleverer. I am sorry to be obliged to check 
any joyfulness at some particular barbarity having 
dropped out of fashion ; for, my good friends, I must 
remind you of the fact that another has entered. 
What was done by superstition is now done by 
science. 

Sir Arthur. I deny that the cruelties inflicted by 
science upon animals, are equal in number and 
extent to those that were inflicted by superstition ; 



42 ANIMALS AND 

and then, look at the purpose — recollect that in some 
cases it is to master the diseases of animals that 
animals are subjected to scientific investigation. 

Milverton, Scientific investigation ! It is very 
unlike you, Sir Arthur, to use fine words for the 
barbarities that go on under the pretentious name of 
scientific investigation. 

This was one of the branches of the subject that I 
was most anxious to discuss with you. I do not wish 
to carry my arguments to any extreme ; but I declare 
that I believe a vast amount of needless cruelty is 
inflicted upon animals under the pretext of scien- 
tific investigation. I vow that I think it is a crime 
to make experiments upon animals for the sake of 
illustrating some scientific fact that has already been 
well ascertained. You might as well say that it is 
desirable to put wretched dogs into the Grotto del 
Cane for the purpose of proving that the air in that 
grotto is mephitic. 

Lady Ellesmere. Surely everybody must agree with 
Leonard in that proposition. 

Mrs. Milverton. Certainly. 

Ellesmere. Well, I do not deny it ; I think he is 
right. 

Mauleverer. I go further : I don't believe that a 
single valuable fact has been discovered by any of 
the tortures which have been inflicted upon animals. 



THEIR MASTERS. 43 

Sir Arthur. I am not prepared to go that 
length with you. I have a perfect horror of vivi- 
section ; the very word makes my flesh creep. But 
we shall not carry our point (for I take it we are all 
agreed upon the point) by suffering any exaggeration 
to enter into our statements. 

Ellesmere. What do you propose, Milverton ? I 
mean, what do you propose by way of remedy for 
this evil ? 

Milverton. I have very little to propose in the 
way of direct remedy. There have been horrors in 
the way of vivisection— especially those perpetrated 
in France and Germany — against which I think direct 
legislation might be claimed. But it is very little 
that direct legislation can do in this matter. We can 
only rely upon the force of enlightened public opinion. 
I think women could do a great deal in this matter, 
as indeed they can in most social affairs. 

Lady Ellesmere. It would be quite enough reason 
for refusing to marry any man, if one knew that he 
practised any needless cruelties upon animals, whether 
called by any scientific name or not.* My husband 
may ill-treat me, as you see he does, generally 
pointing out the foolishness of any remark that I may 
make ; but if he ill-treated animals, I do not think I 
could endure him./ 

Maitleverer. After all, then, we are driven to the 



44 ANIMALS AND 

surgeon's wives, or sweethearts, for some remedy in 
this affair. 

Milverton, Not altogether. If public opinion 
were strong in the direction in which we wish it to 
prevail, no government, no public body could have 
these cruel and wicked experiments carried on under 
its sanction. I have looked into the subject carefully, 
and I have come to the conclusion that the action 
of this opinion upon public bodies would stop many 
of the horrors we now complain of. I cannot say any 
more about this branch of the subject. It is so re- 
pulsive. 

I now descend into a very commonplace matter 
relating to beasts of burden. I think that a great 
deal might be done to alleviate the sufferings of 
animals, by reasonable and judicious supervision 
and inspection. Of course I know what will be 
said directly, in opposition to this proposal, that it 
is contrary to the laws of political economy. But, 
previously to going into detail, I want to ask you all 
a great question which presses upon my mind. It 
is this : Has not every living creature its rights ? I 
suppose that this proposition may seem somewhat 
fanciful when applied to animals ; but I distinctly hold 
that every living creature has its rights, and that 
justice, in the highest form, may be applied to it. I 
say that a lame horse has a right to claim that it 



THEIR MASTERS. 45 

shall not be worked ; and just as I would protect one 
man from being ill-treated by another, so, to use the 
principle in its widest form, I would protect anyone 
animal from being ill-treated by any other. 

Cramner. I know that I am always in Milverton's 
thoughts whenever he makes a dead set against 
political economy and economists. I do not see 
much use in his dogma that — 

Sir Arthur. I do. 

Cranmer. — every animal has its rights; but I 
have no objection to admit it. What then ? What 
practical result do you aim at, Milverton ? 

Milverton. Well, I say that if only several prac- 
tical men cared for this subject — namely, the good 
treatment of animals — as much as we who are sit- 
ting in this room do, an effective system of inspection 
and supervision might be devised for draught-horses 
employed in any great town — say, for instance, in 
London. 

The mischief in this world is, that statesmen and 
men of business have for many years been greatly 
employed in arranging where power should be placed, 
and not how it should be used ; and so poor men and 
poor animals have often had a sair time of it. 

I maintain that, with the assistance of my friend 
Cranmer, I could give the heads ol a Bill for the 
inspection of draught animals in this metropolis, 



46 ANIMALS AND 

which would prevent an immense deal of the cruelty 
now exercised upon them. Once direct the atten- 
tion of men to this subject (and man is a most in- 
genious animal), you would be surprised to see what 
good results might be effected. 

But now I am going to propose quite a minor 
matter — a thing at which I dare say you will laugh, 
but which, I believe, will have a great effect in re- 
lieving part of the misery suffered by draught-horses 
in our metropolis — I allude to cab-horses. 

Eilesmere. Stop, stop : I cannot allow this dis- 
cussion to go on at such a pace. I must go back to 
the legal part of the question. Every animal has its 
rights, according to Milverton. Why stop there? 
Every reptile then : every insect ? Do you admit 
that, you Brahminical personage ? 

Milverton. Certainly. You may make me ridi- 
culous, or, at least, try to do so ; but you shall not 
make me inconsistent. Look there : you see, at this 
moment, in front of the open window, a number of 
flying creatures. 

Eilesmere. Why not say flies at once ? 

Milverton. Because I wanted to state the matter 
in the most abstract fashion. You see, I say, a num- 
ber of flying creatures, whirling about in a mazy 
dance, and, as far as we can judge, enjoying them- 
selves very much, and doing us no harm. They are 



THEIR MASTERS. 47 

not even touching any of that e property' which the 
lawyers love so well. If you were to kill any of them 
at this moment, I think it would not merely be a 
cruelty, but an invasion of right — an illegal trans- 
action. 

Sir Arthur. I think Milverton is justified in this 
assertion. You have no right to attack those crea- 
tures. Have you ever observed, by the way, how fond 
children are of that word ? e You have no right to do 
it.' ' He had no right to hit me/ and so on. 

Ellesmere. ' Hail, horrors, hail V Do you see that 
cloud, not of insects, but of morning visitors coming 
up the avenue ? — and they have seen us too. Have 
we a right, we men, to slip off, and leave the ladies to 
receive them ? Right or not, I vanish. 

So Sir John rushed off, while the rest of us, 
having some sense of politeness, stayed ; and so 
the conversation upon the animal question was 
for a time broken off. 



48 ANIMALS AND 



CHAPTER III. 

The conversation this afternoon commenced 
abruptly as follows : — 

Mauleverer. We have been talking a great deal 
lately about the animal creation. I have been think- 
ing how much misery there is among the lower 
animals arising from fear. 

Ellesmere. Nonsense ! You are not going to per- 
suade me of that. 

Mauleverer. It is true though. I am convinced 
that they suffer greatly from fear, or rather apprehen- 
sion ; and that is what we human beings suffer most 
from. 

Sir Arthur. We know very little about their joys, 
their sorrows, or their sufferings. I am inclined to 
think that there is a large balance of happiness in their 
favour. I should have taken just an opposite view to 
Mauleverer's. I admit that they suffer from fear, but 
very little from apprehension. What men suffer most 
from is not fear, but care. 



THEIR MASTERS. 

Heard not by the outward ear, 
In the heart I am a Fear, 
And from me is no escape. 
Every hour I change my shape, 
Roam the highway, ride the billow, 
Hover round the anxious pillow. 
Ever found, and never sought, 
Flattered, cursed. Oh ! know you not 
Care ? Know you not anxiety ? * 

Elles7iiere. I suppose everybody has thought at 
some time or other what creature he should like to be, 
if the Pythagorean system were true, and we were to 
reappear— at least, some of us — in some lower form of 
Being. I wonder what Cranmer would like to be. I 
don't wish to suggest anything for any other gentle- 
man ; but it occurs to me that Cranmer would rather 
shine as a tortoise. 

Sir Arthur. I have long ago made up my mind 
upon the point. I would be a bird ; and, I think, of 
all birds, the swallow — a travelled creature, who, like 
Ulysses, had seen many races of men and many 
cities. 

Ellesmere. Milverton would be a bird too — the 
meditative stork. I knew a stork just like Milverton ; 
I used to watch it from the windows of my inn at a 
little place — I forget the name — on a river that runs into 

* Second part of Faust. Anster's translation. 

E 



50 ANIMALS AND 

the Rhine. It would remain for hours perched on a 
rock, standing on one leg and pretending to look for 
fish ; but, in reality, thinking of the queer ways of 
men, and inventing aphorisms. 

Lady Ellesmere. You have not asked us what 
we should like to be. 

Ellesmere, Oh ! you will have gone through the 
worst form of animal life — at any rate, that which is 
most noxious to man. But if there is any other form 
to be gone through by you, you will, of course, be 
butterflies ; and how you will look at each other's fine 
dresses, and say of the empress butterfly, c I wonder 
how her husband can afford to let her dress in that 
expensive way — in all the colours of the rainbow, 
too ! ' 

Milverton. That makes me think of an anecdote of 
Thackeray. He was going down the Strand with a 
friend of mine, and they stopped to look at an oyster- 
shop. There was a tub of oysters at a shilling a dozen 
(those were halcyon days for oyster-eaters) : there was 
also a tub of oysters at tenpence the dozen. ' How 
these must hate those ! ' exclaimed Thackeray, point- 
ing first to the tenpenny, and then to the shilling 
oysters. There you have a most characteristic speech 
of that great satirist. 

Elles?nere. I have been thinking over the question, 
and I have made up my mind what I would be< I 



THEIR MASTERS. 51 

think I once told you before. I would certainly be a 

fish. 

The fish he leads a merry life, 

He drinks when he likes, and he has no wife. 

That is my own poetry ; at least, I believe so. 

Sir Arthur. I think Ellesmere is wrong in his 
natural history. 

Ellesmere. Well, the fish has no wife like the 
lion, the tiger, or the fox. I should not like to 
be a lion, and have to come home, after a hard 
day's hunting, to the lioness and my cubs, with- 
out any prey in my paws. My mane would be 
pulled in a manner that would not be at all caressing. 
No. I am quite resolved, that if I am to have any 
choice, I will undoubtedly be a fish. Wait though ! I 
pause to hear what Mauleverer will say; because I 
will not enter willingly into any form of animal life, if 
he is to take the same form. He would make all the 
other fishes so melancholy, that they would turn up 
their sides, and show the whites of their eyes, and not 
endeavour to catch any more flies, for he would prove 
to them that about once in a million times it would be 
an artificial, and not a real fly. Let us enjoy life in 
the best way we can ; whether we are birds, beasts, 
men, or fishes, and eschew all those people who delight 
in melancholy talk, write melancholy novels, that 
have bad endings, or play melancholy music which I 

E 2 



52 ANIMALS AND 

cannot abide. Dismal people are the only people 
to be sedulously avoided, unless, of course, as in 
Mauleverer's case, they have transcendent notions 
of cookery. 

Milverton. The whole of your conversation re- 
minds me — 

Ellesmere. The three most fatal words in the 
English language are, ' That reminds me.' You feel 
certain that a long story, or a terrible disquisition is 
coming upon you. 

Cranmer. I must interrupt. I am not going to be 
a tortoise, though I admit it is one of the most judi- 
cious creatures in creation. I should like to be a 
beaver. If there is any truth in the theories that 
Mauleverer is always dinning into our ears (forgive the 
unparliamentary expression, Mauleverer), about the 
misery of all creatures endowed with life, that misery 
may best be met with and conquered by continuous 
w r ork. Now, I take it the beaver is the most laborious 
creature of whose habits we know anything. He is 
never satisfied with his work. I wonder that he is 
not a chosen pet of mankind, for people who have 
watched him tell me that he is a very good-natured 
animal, and a most amusing one. After building a 
dam, which he will do in a room, for he always sup- 
poses that he is to be victimised by a sudden influx 
of water, he will contemplate the building in the most 



THEIR MASTERS. 53 

knowing manner, strengthen the weaker parts, or pull 
it all down together and reconstruct from the founda- 
tion — in fact, he is a ceaseless worker, and a most 
severe critic of his own work. This must recommend 
him to your favourable notice, Milverton. 

Ellesmere. I won't be a beaver if I can help it. 
One of the errors of this age is, a deification of work 
for the mere sake of working. I hate fussiness. 

Lady Ellesmere. The most fussy man alive ! 

Ellesmere. The really good man, and the man of 
beautiful nature, like the good fish, can be idle and 
innocent too. Show me the man who employs his 
leisure well, and I will tell you who will go to heaven. 

Milverton. Well, now I suppose that you have all 
said your preliminary say. I shall take full advan- 
tage, hereafter, in commenting on what you have said, 
every word of which bears upon my subject. But, to 
begin at the beginning, Mauleverer spoke of the fear 
suffered by all animals. By the way, adopting the 
plan used in Acts of Parliament, of defining certain 
words to have extensive meanings, when I use the 
word ' animals' I mean all living creatures except 
men and women. Now, touching this fear, I main- 
tain that animals are more fearless than man. There 
are several domestic animals of my acquaintance, 
which, having learnt the thorough friendliness of the 
men, women, and children with whom they live, are 



54 ANIMALS AND 

most remarkably fearless. Seize hold of them sud- 
denly ; threaten them as much as you like ; they have 
that perfect confidence in your good intentions that 
they will bear the threatening gestures with an 
equanimity and absence of nervousness which are un- 
known in man. I mention this fact with a view to 
show how much we might increase the happiness of 
these animals with which we live, if we were uni- 
formly kind to them. I refer you for proof of this 
to the happy families of animals that lived with 
Waterton. 

Ellesmere. All animals I have known intimately 
have had a great appreciation of fun ; and that is why 
I like the animal creation so much. If I were to pre- 
tend to throw Fairy into the water, a proceeding 
which she knows that I know she dislikes, she would 
perfectly understand that this was a mere demonstra- 
tion, similar to that of an independent member asking 
a question of a minister in the House, the whole affair 
having been arranged an hour or two before at the 
minister's official residence in Downing Street, and 
Fairy would thoroughly enter into the joke. 

I can hardly tell you how much I see in this. It 
impresses me more than hundreds of those stories 
showing the sagacity of animals which are current in 
the world. 

Milverton has been wonderfully merciful to us, in 



THEIR MASTERS. 55 

not giving us hosts of these stories. There was one, 
however, he used to tell (for we have had much of this 
animal talk before, though not in the same company) 
which became a favourite with me. It was from some 
old writer — Barlasus I think was his name — that the 
story came. There was a fox which had been the 
death of many a pack of hounds. He managed it in 
this way. He got them to follow him in full cry to- 
wards a ravine : over it he went at full speed : the 
dogs followed him, and were dashed to pieces. But 
the fox by no means descended to the bottom of the 
ravine. He contrived to jump into a bit of brush- 
wood that hung a little way down the precipice. 
Thence he had some sort of pathway which he could 
climb up and regain his lair. Doubtless the creature 
had found out this device by accident. The first time 
he had probably gone over the precipice unwittingly ; 
had been caught by the brushwood ; and had detected 
this to be the mode of getting rid, in the most com- 
plete and summary fashion, of tiresome packs of 
brutes that were wont to worry him. 

What a difference there is between this trick and an 
animal's showing that appreciation of character and 
conduct which is to be seen in Fairy's understanding 
that any threats of mine are mere brut a fulmina, and, 
in short, a bad style of joke. 

Sir Arthur. I can confirm what Ellesmere says, 



56 ANIMALS AND 

and can give another remarkable instance. I know a 
dog who, without flinching (by the way I object to a 
neuter relative pronoun being applied to an animal, 
and I advisedly say ' who ' instead of * which ') — I say 
I know a dog who will not flinch, or even wink, when 
his master, or his master's friends, aim a violent blow 
at him which will come close to his head ; but which 
of course is never meant to hit him, and never does 
hit him. Still his confidence is something amazing, 
and he evidently enjoys the transaction exceedingly. 
It is a joke in which you can see he thoroughly par- 
takes. His master is one who is exceedingly tender 
towards animals, and the dog knows that he would 
not hurt him for the world. And thus the animal 
appreciates that this is a great amusement to the 
company. Now observe, there would be compara- 
tively little in this transaction, if his master were a 
showman. We know by what devices, connected 
with reward and punishment, tricks of this kind may 
be taught ; but no reward follows this exhibition. The 
dog is perhaps sitting up at the tea-table with the 
children, when a violent blow of the kind I have 
described is aimed at him ; but he at once enters 
into the fun of the thing. I really do not think 
that Ellesmere presses his instance too far when he 
makes it significant of an appreciation on the animal's 
part of the character and habitual conduct of his master. 



THEIR MASTERS. 57 

Mrs. Milverton. All that you have just said bears 
out what Leonard began by maintaining, that the ani- 
mals with whom we are obliged to live might be made 
infinitely more comfortable by the removal of fear, and 
that this is an end which can be easily attained. 

Milverton. We begin to teach by blows, which are 
things very difficult to understand ; and then we 
wonder that we have no hold upon the regard of the 
animal, and, in fact, that we cannot manage it Now, 
many animals, I should say most animals, have a 
Macaulay-like memory, and certainly never forget 
early ill-treatment. 

What I desire most in our conduct to animals, is 
some little use of the imaginative faculty. An imagi- 
native person cannot well be cruel. 

Ellesmere. Oh ! Oh ! Your friend, Cortes, for in- 
stance — a poet, a scholar, undoubtedly a man of pow- 
erful imagination — yet how he treats the natives ! just 
as brutal men among us treat animals. J 

Milverton. You are wrong, though perhaps my 
dictum may require some modification. The imagina- 
tion of Cortes made him fully aware of the sufferings 
he was inflicting. That same power of imagination 
led him to believe that he was doing great things for 
civilization, and especially for true religion, in the cru- 
elties he was obliged, as he thought, to commit. This 
would not apply to animals. I have no doubt that 



58 ANIMALS AND 

Cartes was very kind to them. We have not those 
after-thoughts about them that we have about our 
fellow-men — those after-thoughts which have made 
men severe to their fellows, sincerely believing, in 
many instances, that they were ensuring some great 
and final good to those whom they persecuted re- 
morselessly. 

I maintain that my dictum is substantially right, 
that you have only, by the aid of imagination, to enter 
fully into what we may reasonably conceive to be the 
feelings of animals, to be most tender and kind towards 
them. Even such talk as we have just had, which 
might not appear at first to bear upon the subject, is 
most useful. Only think of the ways, habits, and pecu- 
liarities of any creature, and you become tolerant 
towards it. I will exemplify what I mean. The horse 
is a most timid and nervous animal. By the way, I 
observed that not one of you was inclined, in your 
imaginary choice of animal life, to become a horse or 
any animal that has much to do with man. Well, the 
horse, as I said, is a most timid and nervous animal. 
The moment you have recognized this fact, you are 
able, by the aid of imagination, to enter, as it were, 
into its terrors, and you do not beat a creature merely 
because it is afraid. 

* 

Cranmer. I come to what I always believe in as the 
main specific for all evils, namely, education. Milver- 



THEIR MASTERS. 59 

ton talks of imagination and makes too much of that, 
I think. Imagination must have a basis of facts to 
build upon. Now it is a fact, I believe, as Milverton 
states, that the horse is a peculiarly nervous and timid 
animal. It sees a large piece of paper, or an empty 
sack, or an ungainly-looking shadow in the road, and 
it takes it to be some dangerous living creature. That 
ought to be told to people from the first, especially to 
children. I have never written a book, but it really 
seems to me that I could write a book, if I possessed 
the requisite knowledge — 

Ellesmere. Well, most of us could do that. 

Cranmer. — if I possessed the requisite know- 
ledge, I say. It would be most serviceable in schools, 
and, indeed, should be a class-book in all schools. I 
have never read a child's book upon animals which 
has satisfied me as regards the points I should endea- 
vour to inculcate. 

Ellesmere. Upon my word, Cranmer is coming out 
in a new character. I do not like, however, to hear 
any man indulge in threats of a painful kind, and 
I look upon this as a threat, on Cranmer's part, that 
he will write a book. 

Sir Arthur, The words of Cranmer are the words 
of wisdom, of beaver-like sagacity. I almost think 
that I will offer to join with Cranmer in writing such a 
book, only the worst of it is, one is so deficient in 



60 ANIMALS AND 

facts. One would have to sit under some eminent 
naturalist for two years. But, most seriously speaking, 
it might be the just pride of one's life to have written 
such a book. Going back to my early childhood, I 
distinctly remember how thoroughly ignorant I was 
of the very fact Milverton first brought before us, 
and that I thought my first pony was to be cured of 
shying by adopting the most severe measures, to force 
it up to the apparently dangerous object. I am now, 
I hope, a little wiser as regards the management both 
of men and horses in this respect ; but really I do not 
see why I should not have been taught this wisdom at 
a much earlier period. 

Milverto7i. Cranmer is as right as possible ; and I 
accept, with due humility, his correction when he said 
that imagination must have a basis of facts to build 
upon. 

Ellesmere. There was some practical thing, some 
plan, which Milverton alluded to in a former con- 
versation. It had relation to horses. He was going 
to tell us about it when visitors swarmed in the other 
day. 

Milverton. You will only laugh at it, I dare say ; 
but I don't mind telling it you. 

One of the great evils in the treatment of animals is, 
that they are necessarily entrusted to hirelings. Now, 
the owner of an animal might, in nineteen cases ouv 



THEIR MASTERS. 61 

of twenty, be trusted to exercise what I may call super- 
ficial kindness towards it. At any rate, he would avoid 
intentional unkindness. How he generally errs, as I 
have shown before, is from the want of sufficient 
knowledge, just as we err in the sanitary management 
of our houses and our families, simply from ignorance 
of what it much concerns us to know. 

To lessen this superficial ill-treatment, which per- 
haps had better be called visible cruelty, would be a 
considerable gain ; and it is only to be acquired by 
the owner having some means of ascertaining how his 
animal is treated by his hireling. I would have some 
method by which (in the case, for example, of cab- 
driving) there should be a way of communication 
open between the passenger and the owner. I have 
often longed to tell the owner how unworthily his 
agent acts for him. In ever) hired carriage I would 
have the means of doing that. A small locked box, in 
which one could deposit one's complaint, and of which 
the master alone had the key, would enable one to 
do so. 

I see at once the objections which some of you will 
make, namely, that complaints would be made from 
ill-nature or from frivolousness. I don't believe it. 
The people who ride in hired carriages have too much 
to do, and are too intent upon their work, to be over- 
busy in the cause of humanity to animals ; but, occa- 



62 ANIMALS AND 

sionally, this device might be of great service ; and it 
would be a constant check upon the inhumanity of the 
driver, if he were an inhuman man. Moreover, it 
would often touch the owner himself, and be an excuse 
and an aid to the driver, as when, for instance, an 
owner sends out an animal which is imperfectly re- 
covered from lameness, or has been badly shod. How- 
ever, to state the question broadly, to assure the good 
treatment of animals used in hired carriages, it is most 
desirable to aim at having some mode of communica- 
tion with the owner. If this idea is once put before 
the minds of men strongly, they will find other ways 
of effecting the purpose besides my way of the little 
locked box. 

Cranmer. I, for one, do not think this suggestion 
at all a small one ; and it seems to me very practical 
and very practicable. 

Ellesmere. It is not bad ; but Milverton exaggerates 
when he says that nineteen out of twenty owners are 
considerate and humane to their animals, as far as 
intention goes. 

Now I will tell you what is a horror to me, and 
where I strongly suspect the guilt is upon the owner, 
and not upon any hireling. You often see a wretched 
little animal driven at a tremendous pace, with a 
fearful load behind it of men, women, and children, 
pleasure-taking, as I suppose. Now, here, I have 



THEIR MASTERS. 63 

scarcely a doubt, the owner is the driver. I am sure 
I don't grudge these people their pleasure; but I 
lament for the poor animal its want of rest, for you 
often see that the ' light cart ' (light no longer) is one 
that is probably used for business purposes throughout 
the week. Now, I am only a Sabbatarian as regards 
animals. I want the Sunday to be not only the most 
holy, but the happiest day for all of us. But, as regards 
rest, animals should be considered first.: 

We have now dealt handsomely with a practical 
suggestion. Cranmer approves ; so do I ; and the others 
show their consent by a judicious silence. 

Let us go into theory a little. There are some fellows 
amongst us who read books — a weak employment of 
the human mind, but still a not unfrequent one. Sir 
Arthur and Milverton are gobblers of books. Cranmer 
reads books of a cerulean colour to any extent. What 
do the learned say about the intellect of animals ? I 
have always detested Descartes; and my detestation 
of him has always been more hearty and complete, 
by reason of my knowing nothing of his works from 
personal inspection. But I have been told that he 
maintained that animals had no feeling. I do not like 
to make any violent assertion anent the sayings of 
philosophers ; but I think that this is about the most 
absurd one I ever heard of. I know that we can only 
detect the noumenon from the phenomenati (you see I 



64 ANIMALS AND 

know their terms) ; but having observed that the pinch 
which gives me pain and makes me cry out, or be dis- 
posed to cry out, produces a similar effect upon 
the lower animal, I, for my part, require no 
more proof. But is it true, Sir Arthur, that Descartes 
asserts this proposition ? I should be sorry to 
dismiss any comfortable detestation from my mind ; 
but justice, of which virtue I am an honourable 
minister, will compel me to do so, if the accusation is 
false. 

Sir Arthur. It is true. One of his main argu- 
ments is, that animals always do things in the same 
manner without having learnt how to do them, and 
that it would be possible to construct a machine which 
would have the power of moving about, and of uttering 
sounds similar to that of an animal. 

Mauleverer. I am sorry to hear that the good man 
talked such nonsense. Before this time I only knew 
one thing about him ; but that had given me a very 
high opinion of him. I knew that he had taken for 
his motto ' Qui bene latuit bene vixit' 

Milverton. Your question, Ellesmere, was about 
the intellect of animals. I do not know any saying 
about them which has come home to me more than 
that of Anaxagoras. I have only learnt of Anaxagoras 
through Goethe. This is what Goethe says : 'Anaxa- 
goras teaches that all animals have active Reason, but 



THEIR MASTERS. 65 

not passive Reason, which, as it were, is the interpreter 
of the understanding.' * 

I don't pretend to understand the last few words ; 
but, as I said before, that saying comes home to my 
mind with much force. And, if true, it affords a 
beautiful illustration of the prudence and sparingness 
of what we call Nature, but which I would rather 
call Providence. These animals have the powers of 
reasoning necessary for the guidance of themselves, 
but not those powers of reflection which -would pro- 
bably be a source of suffering to them. 

Ellesmere. Then you think that Fairy has suffi- 
cient powers of reasoning to understand how bones 
are most surely to be obtained in sufficient quantity ; 
and, with that view, resolves to abide here and to 
be true to her master, whom, I observe, she always 
reluctantly forsakes even when I know it would be a 
pleasure to her to go out with another active animal 
named Ellesmere, in preference to remaining pas- 
sively with her meat- winner, the inactive Milverton. 
But that when she stays in his study with him, she 
in nowise partakes of his reflections upon good and 
evil, the Finite and the Infinite, the Subjective and 
the Objective. 

* 2Cnajcagorag Utyvtr baf* aHe Sfytete bit tfy&tige SSernunft 
fyabert/ abeu ntdfjt Me leibertfce/ tie gletdfjfam ber £)olmetfdf)tt 

beg SSerftanteg ifh 

F 



66 ANIMALS AND 

Milverton. No ; you confuse affection with rea- 
son. Fairy stays with me because she feels (doesn't 
reason about it) that I am the real, constant, 
abiding friend, and must be considered first. Where- 
in she shows the active reason that Anaxagoras speaks 
of — the reason necessary for her preservation, as it 
seems to her — is in burying the bones for future meals, 
when she has for the present satisfied her hunger. I 
assure you, that the more carefully you work out this 
sayinp" 01 Anaxagoras, the more truth you. will find in 
it. You must know that Anaxagoras was one of the 
greatest philosopners that ever lived. 

Ellesmere. We±i, we have had enough food for 
reflection to-day. We have exercised both our ac- 
tive and our passive reason sufficiently; and now 
I vote we exercise our muscles and take a long 
walk. 

Milverton. No ; you must not go away ; I have 
something to read to you — a letter from a Scotch 
gentleman on the subject of the e bearing-rein.' Here 
it is. I shall not give you the beginning of it. 

Ellesmere. Yes, do : I should like to hear it 
all. 

Milverton. Don't be so curious. Perhaps there is 
some comment upon you, saying what a troublesome 
1 chiel ' you are to me. I shall only give you what I 
please. 



THEIR MASTERS. 67 



He says : — 



The subject is the use of the ' bearing-rein ' foi horses. 
This abominable and useless contrivance is not used in 
Scotland (with perhaps the exception of a permanent 
check-rein on young, strong, high-spirited carriage horses ; 
and it could not prudently be dispensed with as regards 
them). 

I visit some of the large towns in England twice or 
thrice a year, and this bearing-rein on heavily-laden 
draught horses is, to my eyes, quite an agonising subject of 
remark. 

I remonstrated with a carter in Manchester, last time 
I was there, and told him to take it off, and let his horses 
get their heads down, and their shoulders to the burden. 
6 Ay, they'd come quick enough down on their knees they 
would,' was his answer, and no argument would avail. 

Now, it came under my observation, that a large 
number of English horses were brought to Glasgow to work 
for a railway here, and they had all the bearing-rein on 
their arrival. 

This, however, was an absurdity not to be tolerated by 
the Scotch carters, who saw at once that the animal was 
tortured, cribbed and confined in its action, and half the 
power of the shoulder for drawing was lost — a splendid 
power ! * His strength is in his neck,' as the old Scripture 
says. 

Well ! the horses had been so long used to it, that they 
could not work without it ; but their new masters were not 
to be baffied, and the next time I saw the horses, they were 
working with a kind of modified bearing-rein, as follows :— 

A longer strap or rope was used, and fastened to the 
trams of the cart on each side, forming a much less acute 

F 2 



68 ANIMALS AND 

angle than the real l bearing-rein ; ' and, with this con- 
trivance, the horses were working well, and the look of care 
and misery was gone from their faces. 

Of course this was only an intermediate stage, and 
ended very shortly in the new horses working altogether 
without it. 

All this was the doing of the Scotch carters themselves, 
no one interfering with them. 

Now, only suppose that it should be a result of 
our conversation, that bearing-reins should gradually 
be left off in England as well as in Scotland, what 
an ample success it would be ! It would be quite 
enough to have upon our tombs, c He was one of 
those men who caused the bearing-rein to be dis- 
continued.' I should not wish for anything more. 
Sir Arthur would put it beautifully into Latin. 

Ellesmere. People do say — I don't say it — that 
Milverton, with his l paternal governments/ and 
things of that kind, is very fond of the bearing-rein 
as applied to human beings. 

Milverton. It is an outrageous calumny. There 
is not anybody in the world who is more fond of 
personal freedom than I am, and would protect it 
more than I would. But this is just the way of the 
world. You make a proposition, guarding it in the 
most careful manner, so that it should not be mis- 
construed or abused, and then it is quoted against 



THEIR MASTERS. 69 

you without any of the guarding part being taken 
notice of. It really makes one afraid to make any 
statement whatever. The good Lavater sometimes 
uses a strong expression when he is especially 
anxious to recommend to the notice of his hearers 
some aphoristic saying in which he has the greatest 
faith. Thus he will exclaim : — 

Let the four and twenty elders in Heaven rise before him 
who, from motives of humanity, can totally suppress an 
arch, full-pointed, but offensive bon mot. 

I should like to be able to give equal force to what 
I am going to say. ' Let the four and twenty elders 
rise up before him who can repeat an adverse argu- 
ment fairly/ If you observe, hardly anybody ever 
does so ; and the curious thing is ; that people will 
show this unfairness even in the presence of the man 
whose argument or statement they misrepresent ; and 
even immediately after he has uttered it. I could 
credit a man with almost every virtue, if I saw that 
he represented his opponent's argument fairly and 
exactly. Of course it requires ability as well as 
fairness to do this. 

Sir Arthur. I agree with you, Milverton, and I 
would carry the observation further. It is not only 
that people misrepresent one's statement or one's 
argument by misquotation — by either omitting some- 



7° ANIMALS AND 

thing or introducing something— but they adopt a 
more subtle form of wrong-dealing. They will carry 
what you have said into a region that it was obviously 
not meant to apply to— to some subject of a different 
kind. 

Elles7nere. As usual, I protest against abstract 
sayings. Give us an example. 

Sir Arthur, Well, you state something which 
has reference to political action, in which the pas- 
sions, the interests, the affections of men are in- 
volved ; and your adversar) immediately applies it 
to some abstract question of political economy or 
morals; and he thinks he answers you, because he 
shows that in this foreign region — foreign to your 
present region of thought — the saying is not ap- 
plicable. If I may say so without rudeness, you 
sometimes do this yourself, Ellesmere. You make 
a saying appear to be absurd, merely because you 
will not allow yourself to be bounded by the circle 
of thought in which your adversary is working. 

Milverton. It all comes to this : that the love of 
intellectual victory is so strong in men that they 
apply the laws of war to questions of pure thought, 
and take every advantage of an adversary, being quite 
indifferent to the research after truth. 

Ellesinere. Don't get into a rage, my dear fellow ! 
What does Dr. Blair say about anger ? 



THEIR MASTERS. 71 

Milverton. I don't care what Dr. Blair savs. Here 
are a set of people — yourself among them — bound 
down by the narrowest conventionalities of all kinds ; 
and, because I say that it is necessary, when people 
live in close contact with one another, as in great 
towns, that each one should be prevented by some 
high controlling authority from doing something which 
directly injures the health and well-being of his neigh- 
bours, or when I say that the State, or the municipal 
authority, should do something for the general good, 
which no individual can manage to get done for him- 
self, then you talk of my being fond of the bearing- 
rein for human beings. 

Ellesmere. I had no idea that there was a thunder- 
storm so near ! 

Milverton. And what a coward you are as regards 
these conventionalities I spoke of, and which are real 
bearing-reins to you, and very tight ones too ! 

Pray, may I ask, Master Ellesmere, are you not, as 
being one of the most impatient men in the world, 
often wearied to death at a long dinner ? 

Ellesmere. I can answer that question honestly — 
Yes. 

Milverton. Did you ever wish to get up, and take a 
turn about the room, and resume your seat ? 

Ellesmere. Dozens of times. 

Milverton. Did you ever venture to do it ? 



72 ANIMALS AND 

E lies mere. No. 

Milverton. I thought so. There has been but one 
man in my time brave enough thus to risk the 
danger of his being thought a little eccentric — and 
who did venture to walk about the room at dinner- 
time when he was tired of sitting. I just mentioned 
this trifling thing, which came into my mind at the 
moment, as a very slight specimen of the innumer- 
able ties which really control human beings, and are 
their bearing-reins. I don't say that these ties are all 
of them bad ; but what I do say, is, that they are in- 
finitely vexatious when compared with the control 
which I would have exercised for the public good. 

Ellesmere. Now that Milverton has cooled down a 
little, I don't mind telling you all a great secret. [Here 
he lowered his voice to a whisper.] I do not know of 
anybody, however agreeable, present company of 
course excepted, whom I do not get tired of as a neigh- 
bour during a dinner that lasts two or three hours. As 
Dr. Johnson would say, one travels over their minds. 

Milverton, No, one doesn't. 

Ellesmere, Nothing can please him now, after my 
unfortunate speech about the bearing-rein. 

Milverton, It is a most unwarrantable notion, 
whether Dr. Johnson said it or not, that one can travel 
over other men's minds in any transient and cursory 
manner. The most commonplace person has wild 



THEIR MASTERS. 7$ 

regions — wildernesses it may be — of thought and feel- 
ing, which even their most intimate friends hardly 
ever enter. But I admit that of superficial talk, or 
even of very good dinner talk, two or three hours is a 
Fearful spell to have with any ordinary human being. 

Ellesmere. We are coming round at last. 

Milverton. I wish to go back to a part of the sub- 
ject which we were discussing a few minutes ago. I 
think I understand Ellesmere. He thinks he under- 
stands me, which is much more doubtful. I abso- 
lutely foresaw that he would be as sure as possible to 
introduce the question of the intelligence of animals ; 
and that Descartes' theory, or supposed theory, 
would have to be discussed. Well, I hunted every- 
where to find out what Descartes really said ; but I 
have not come upon any passage which determines 
the point. I must say that I venture, with all hu- 
mility, to differ from Sir Arthur, and to declare that I 
have not found anything in Descartes' writings which 
justifies the assertion that he maintained that animals 
have no feeling. His 'Discours de la Methode' seems 
to me to point the other way. I did not, therefore, 
find what I sought for. I have, however, found a 
treasure. Voltaire once wrote an ' £loge ' upon Des- 
cartes. While looking for that, I discovered a short 
essay of Voltaire's upon animals, which is perfectly 
admirable. By the way, it is very pious, and would 



74 ANIMALS AND 

much astonish those persons who suppose that Voitaif e 
had no religion at all. 

Sir Arthur. Give us some notion of the essay. I 
see you have the book in your hand. 

Mitverton. He begins by an exclamatory sentence, 
' What a pity it is ! What poverty (of thought) to 
have said that animals are machines, deprived of 
knowledge and feeling, always carrying on their 
labours in the same way, and bringing nothing to 
perfection !' 

Then he gives instances, excellently chosen, of the 
intelligence of birds. He speaks of the canary learn- 
ing to sing, and asks this pregnant question : ' N'as-tu 
pas vu qu'il se mdprend et qu'il se corrige?' 

He then goes on to describe all the movements of 
inquietude which a friend might observe in him 
(Voltaire) when he has lost anything, and of joy when 
he has found it. 

I must now give you his own words : — 

' Porte done le meme jugement sur ce chien qui a 
perdu son maitre, qui l'a cherche dans tous les che- 
mins avec des cris douloureux, qui entre dans la 
maison agite, inquiet, qui descend, qui monte, qui va 
de chambre en chambre, qui trouve enfin dans son 
cabinet le maitre qu'il aime, et qui lui temoigne sa 
joie par la douceur de ses cris, par ses sauts^ par ses 
caresses. 






THEIR MASTERS. 75 

1 Des barbares saisissent ce chien, qui Temporte si 
prodigieusement sur Thomme en amitie ; ils le clement 
sur une table, et ils le dissequent vivant pour te mon- 
trer les veines mezaraiques. Tu decouvres dans lui 
tous les memes organes de sentiment qui sont dans 
toi. Reponds-moi, machiniste ; la nature a-t-elle 
arrange tous les ressorts du sentiment dans cet animal, 
arm qu'il ne sente pas ? A-t-il des nerfs pour etre 
impassible ? Ne suppose point cette impertinente 
contradiction dans la nature/ 

He then has a passage which is eminently Voltairian. 
It occurs in a discussion of. the various theories of 
naturalists, metaphysicians, and theologians, as to the 
nature of the souls of animals. 

( Les ames des betes sont des formes substantielles, 
a dit Aristote ; apres Aristote, Pecole arabe ; et apres 
l'ecole arabe, l'ecole angelique ; et apres l'ecole an- 
gelique, la Sorbonne ; et apres la Sorbonne personne 
au monde.' 

You must read the essay for yourselves. It is to be 
found in the ' Dictionnaire philosophique.' 
But the last passage I will read to you now. 

' Mais qui fait mouvoir le soufflet des animaux ? Je 
vous Tai deja dit, celui qui fait mouvoir les astres. 
Le philosophe qui a dit, Deus est anima brutorum^ 
avait raison ; mais il devait aller plus loin.' 



76 ANIMALS AND 

Sir Arthur. What wonderfully lucid language is 
that of Voltaire ! 

Milverton. Yes : how we should all endeavour to 
imitate that lucidity ! I should like never to speak a 
single sentence, nor to write one, whether as regards 
the physical handwriting or the composition, which 
was not perfectly intelligible, as far as language is 
concerned, to the most ordinary reader. It is not 
much worth one's while to be greatly disconcerted at 
anything that may happen to one in this world ; but 
I must confess that I do hate to be misunderstood. 



' Misunderstood/ by the way, is an excellent title 
of an excellent book. 

It is a perfect marvel to me that several men of our 
time, men even of genius, take, comparatively speak- 
ing, so little care to make themselves thoroughly 
understood. It was my vexation at being misunder- 
stood, that made me a little angry just now with 
Ellesmere. 

Ellesmere. A little angry ! Well, I know I was 
very glad that the study table was between us. 

Milverton. I did not mean what I then said to be 
an answer to Ellesmere only, but to other people ; 
perhaps to some among yourselves. I know he 
adapted his sneer about the bearing-rein to the talk of 
other people. 

One must stand up for one's self sometimes. I do 









THEIR MASTERS. 77 

declare I have only met with two or three people in 
the world, John Mill amongst them, who have as 
much love of, and value for/ personal freedom as I 
have. There are several things which States have 
interfered with, and still interfere with, in which their 
interference is, to my mind, not defensible. 

When I am in favour of State interference, it is 
simply upon those occasions whereon, and upon those 
matters wherein, the common consent, nay, I may 
almost say the universal consent, of mankind admits 
that the objects aimed at are for the good of each 
individual; and more than that, that the individual 
cannot obtain this good for himself without the con- 
trolling power of the State. 

Ellesmere. That last sentence is a long one ; and 
before I could assent to it I must have it brought 
home to my dull mind by instances. 

Milverton. Is it not a universal desire on the part 
of those people who drink water, that it should be 
pure water? If I showed you that it is impossible, or 
at least enormously difficult, for human beings, when 
they are packed close together, to obtain such a pri- 
mary requisite as pure water without the interference 
of the State, then I may fairly claim the interference 
of the State. But if I choose to marry my deceased 
wife's sister ; if I choose to subscribe to a lottery; if 
I choose, at one o'clock in the morning, to try and get 



73 ANIMALS AND 



a glass of beer, and another person chooses to keep a 
house open for the chance of supplying me with it ; 
what are any of these things to you ? * 

You may say, if you like, that I am fanatical and 
absurd in my devotion to personal freedom ; but, at 
any rate, do not blame me on both sides, and accuse 
me of a love for a tight bearing-rein, as applied to men, . 
when you find that I maintain it should be so loose a 
rein as regards interference with the personal freedom 
of the people. 

Now do not again misunderstand me. I am not 
fonder of drunkenness and gambling than you are; 
but I am fond, beyond all measure, of men being 
allowed to guide themselves and to act upon their own 
notions of right and wrong in all matters in which the 
peace and welfare of the community are not directly 
menaced by the action of individuals. 

Now let me take another case, in which control 
cannot be held to be an unjust interference with per- 
sonal freedom. There are these millions of people in 



* Mr. Milverton told me afterwards that he was sorry for 
having said the words which I have italicised : and he 
alluded to an article in MacmillarCs Magazine for November, 
1872, which had shown him the immense advantages which 
had resulted from the Licensing Act — advantages so great 
as to compensate for the loss of individual freedom in this 
matter. 



THEIR MASTERS. 79 

a large metropolis like ours. In order that they may 
circulate freely, and with less danger than, unhappily, 
they do at present, certain regulations must be made, 
or ought to be made, by some central authority. 

A better instance still is that of erecting a series of 
barriers, to facilitate the ingress or egress of a great 
crowd. This is not any interference with private 
liberty ; it is, in fact, a means of creating private 
liberty. It is not a needless use of a bearing-rein. 

In short, when a huge number of human beings are 
congregated together in a small space, comparatively 
speaking, you must have regulations to enable even 
the strong, the wise, and the powerful to have the 
utmost freedom of action and movement ; much more 
to enable the weak, the ignorant, and the powerless to 
have the same facilities. 

Ellesmere. Well, now do you agree that we have 
talked enough, and have travelled over a satisfying 
portion of each other's minds ? I know that a little 
while ago I got into a jungle with some wild beasts 
in it, which I am very glad to have got out of. And 
so let us be off for a walk. 

He then rose ; the party broke up ; and there 
was no more conversation about animals that day. 

Postscript. — I may mention, that in the course 
of this conversation Mr. Milverton read the follow- 



So 



ANIMALS AiVB 



ing letter, which he had found in an Echo news- 
paper of last July ; the suggestion therein made 
was highly approved of by himself and the other 
1 Friends in Council.' I did not introduce it into 
the conversation on account of its length ; but it 
appears to be well worth considering. 



C 



Breaks for Omnibuses. 
To the Editor of the 'Echo.' 

Sir, — Every afternoon, when I take a peep behind my 
winkers, I see you, and none but you, fluttering on the top 
of the lumbering caravan which Destiny has thought good to 
oblige me to lug along the slippery streets of London, and I 
often say to myself and to my partner in misery, * How is it 
that that 'ere light-weight, as is up to everything, don't pitch 
into them as is responsible for the needless labour inflicted 
on us poor horses through the want of drags to stop the 
'bus ? ' Why, you must have seen, times and times, how the 
collar is pulled nearly over our heads every time we stop, to 
say nothing of our teeth being crushed, and our necks nearly 
wrung off (almost all my pals have toothache, but we don't 
let on that we have it, for it ain't pleasant to have melted 
lead poured into a tooth, as is how they stop our poor old 
grinders) ; and this pretty operation of stopping (I mean the 
'bus, not the teeth) is performed a couple of hundred times 
every day of our lives. 

Now, they tell me that there is a gentleman who has 
power to cause these drags to be put on omnibuses, under 
the driver's feet, as in Manchester — him, I mean, as had 



THEIR MASTERS. 81 

little flags stuck on the cabs a short time ago. Suppose he 
knew that he would be sticking a year or two on our lives 
by making a stopping drag a condition of a 'bus licence, don't 
you think he would do it ? Yes, bless him ; but though he is a 
kind-hearted gentleman, he don't ride on 'buses, and don't 
know what we have to suffer now. All the drivers know 
and would bless him if he did so, for I hear them say their 
arms is pulled off with the stopping (what must our poor 
mouths be ?). 

And another thing is, that, if we had drags, less of those 
stupid bipeds that are continually running before the 'bus, 
would be injured. I should be rather pleased than other- 
wise if we now and then ran over a 'bus proprietor ; but it 
goes to my heart when an old person. or a little child toddles 
out into the roadway, and all the people cry out, ' Hoi ! ' 
and the driver nearly tugs our heads off, and, do all we can, 
we can't stop the 'bus in time : it pushes us on before it, and 
down goes the unfortunate human with a leg broken, or 
worse ! Some of us horses have heard say that there is a 
society for preventing cruelty to animals (and our treatment 
is cruelty), but I don't believe it, leastways the society does 
not, I suppose, ride on 'buses. Now, dear * Echo,' couldn't 
you row them up all round, and get us drags, and you shall 
have our blessing ; but here comes Jem to harness me for 
my day's work, so no more at present from your humble and 
obedient old 

'Bus Horse. 



G 



£2 ANIMALS AND 









CHAPTER IV. 

Previously to recounting the next conversation, 
I must give some explanations, without which it 
might not be understood. 

We had a short conversation before the one 
which I am about to relate. In the course of it the 
general subject was renewed respecting the intelli- 
gence and worth of animals. Mr. Milverton and 
Sir Arthur were required to produce all that they 
could find upon this subject in the works of 
authors of renown, and this was to be done in the 
ensuing ten days. I may mention that Sir John 
Ellesmere was staying in our house. Mr. Milverton 
has a way of making everybody work who comes 
near him ; and he employed Sir John, myself, 
and several other persons, to assist him in his re- 
searches, directing them as to what books they 
should read. Devoting ourselves entirely to this 
subject (and even the ladies of the house were not 



THEIR MASTERS, 85 

allowed any books but those which Mr. Milverton 
placed in their hands), it is astonishing what a mass 
of materials we collected. 

At length the ten days had elapsed, our friends 
had re-assembled, and the conversation thus 
began : — 

Ellesmere. Before anything is said on the general 
subject, I have a quarrel to pick with Milverton. I 
have now known that man for more years than it is 
pleasant to enumerate. All this time he has had a 
book in his library which he must have known it would 
have been a constant delight to me to read, and which, 
indeed, using Cranmer's form of words, I should 
certainly have written if I had possessed the requisite 
knowledge. 

First, though, I must tell you that we have been 
worked like negro slaves. I have had to read through 
some of the most detestable books I have ever read 
in my life — one or two of them in monkish Latin ; 
but when I came to this treasure of a book, I struck 
work, for it completely fascinated me. 

Cranmer. I wonder what it can be. I will make a 
guess— Search's ( Light of Nature ' ? 

Ellesmere. No. Before, however, I tell you what it 
is, I would not have you imagine that I have not been 
of some service in this great enquiry. I have discovered 



84 ANIMALS AND 

that the saying of Anaxagoras, which Milverton couldn't 
find, is in Plutarch. Having found that, I think I 
have done enough. 

But now to my own dear book. It is Bishop Berkeley's 
i Querist.' You have no idea of the sagacity of that 
man. Many a conclusion that we take to be the 
result of modern discovery, is anticipated by him ; 
and then his quaint way of putting everything is so 
delightful. I must give you some extracts at once, 
before we get immersed in our subject. He asks : — 

Whether reflexion in the better sort might not soon remedy 
our evils ? and whether our real defect be not in a wrong 
way of thinking ? 

Whether France and Flanders could have drawn so much 
money from England for figured silks, lace, and tapestry, 
if they had not had academies for designing ? 

Whether our linen manufacture would not find the bene- 
fit of this institution ; and whether there be anything that 
makes us fall short of the Dutch in damasks, diapers, and 
printed linen, but our ignorance in design ? 

Whether those, who may slight this affair as notional, 
have sufficiently considered the extensive use of the Art of 
Design, and its influence in most trades and manufactures, 
wherein the forms of things are often more regarded than 
the materials ? 

Here you see that South Kensington is anticipated. 

Again : — 

Whether comfortable living doth not produce wants, and 
wants industry, and industry wealth ? 



THEIR MASTERS. Z$ 

Whether any art or manufacture be so difficult as the 
making of good laws ? 

Whether our peers and gentlemen are born legislators ? 
or, whether that faculty be acquired by study and reflexion ? 

Whether to comprehend the real interest of a people and 
the means to procure it doth not imply some fund of know- 
ledge, historical, moral, and political, with a faculty of 
reason improved by learning ? 

Whether every enemy to learning be not a Goth ? and 
whether every such Goth among us be not an enemy to the 
country ? 

Whether, therefore, it would not be an omen of ill 
presage, a dreadful phenomenon in the land, if our great 
men should take it into their heads to deride learning and 
education ? 

Whether half the learning and study of these kingdoms 
is not useless for want of a proper delivery and pronunciation 
being taught in our schools and colleges ? 

Whether, in imitation of the Jesuits at Paris, who admit 
Protestants to study in their College, it may not be right for 
us also to admit Roman Cathoiics into our colleges, without 
obliging them to attend chapel-duties or Catechisms or 
Divinity lectures ? 

Whether, as others have supposed an Atlantis or Eutopia, 
we also may not suppose an Hyperborean Island inhabited 
by reasonable creatures ? 

Manleverer. The extracts are admirable. I decline, 
however, to say ( Yes ' to the last query. Neither in 
Hyperborean Islands nor anywhere else will you find 
a country ' inhabited by reasonable creatures.' 



S6 ANIMALS AND 

I am going to imitate Ellesmere, a practice, however 
desirable, that I rarely indulge in. Before we sepa- 
rated, the other day, Milverton gave me a book to read, 
written by a certain Jerome Cardan, whom I had never 
heard of before, and in this work Milverton was hope- 
ful that I should find something very deep and very 
significant respecting the nature and character of 
animals. I did not, however, find anything of the 
kind ; but I found a delicious simile, which will be of 
use to me for the remainder of my life. There appears 
to have been a certain Greek, named Theonosto. I 
wish he had been one of the 'Friends in Council.' I 
think he would have kept down a good deal of our 
host's optimist talk, and would invariably have been 
on my side. He compares the course of our life 
to water boiling in a cauldron, which, the more it 
bubbles up, the less it becomes, and finally dries up 
altogether.* It is a lovely simile, and would, if well 



Alterum (de quo in Theonosto), qui est secundum vir- 
tutem ; quique vere optimus est, et totus in potestate nostra : 
eo magis recordantibus nobis quod (et in Faralipomenis, lib. 
vi. sect. 2, dictum) vitae nostrae cursum ferventi in lebete aquae 
assimilari ; quae quantumvis intumescat, ubi magis processerit, 
semper minor sit, et siccatur. Quamobrem optima vita 
esset, sibi ipsi vivere, conscientiae, virtuti ac sapientiae : 
beate ac feliciter. — Hieronymi Cardani Arcana Politica, 
anno 1635. 



THEIR MASTERS. ^ 

attended to, keep people more quiet than they are at 
present. 

Milverton. I really must not allow you to say any- 
thing more about Bishop Berkeley, or Jerome Cardan. 
We have a great deal of hard work before us to- 
day. 

First, I must tell you that there is a most elaborate 
discussion, or rather two discussions, in Bayle's Dic- 
tionary about the reasoning powers of animals. I 
am very glad that I did not know this until we had 
made investigation for ourselves, for I might have 
been tempted to have been satisfied with Bayle, 
whereas we have found out much that was not known 
to him. What have you found, Sir Arthur ? 

Sir Arthur. The most noteworthy passages that 
I have found are in Seneca. In the first place, he 
says that animals cannot confer benefits : ' Nee tamen 
beneficium dant, quod nunquam datur, nisi a volente. 

In the next place he says that they have no such 
passion as anger — '/eras ird carere? He admits that 
they have impulses which create c rabiem, feritatem, 
incursum ; ' but no such thing as anger. 

Ellesmere. I do not wish to say anything rude of 
that rich man, Nero's tutor; but he is an ass. 

Sir Arthur. His doctrine may be very foolish; 
but it is very interesting to see how early were the 
seeds of that doctrine implanted which led to 



88 ANIMALS AND 

Descartes' theory. By the way, Milverton, was I right 
about Descartes ? 

Milverton. Yes : I give up ; you were. Well, now 
I want to show you something which also anticipates 
Descartes. There is hardly any writer in the world 
who had such influence in his own time, and long 
afterwards, as Thomas Aquinas, the 'Angelic Doctor/ 
or the 'Angel of the Schools/ as he is frequently 
called. 

In his Summa Totius Theologies, the most tre- 
mendous book I believe that ever was written, he 
takes up the cause against animals. Here is one of 
his propositions: Animalia bruta non delectantur 
visibilibus, odoribus, et sows, nisi in ordine ad susten- 
tationem naturoe. 

Ellesmere. What an absurdity ! Why, with only 
my little knowledge of animals, I could mention to you 
a dozen creatures of my acquaintance who have had 
the keenest delight in music for music's sake. I knew 
a cat who not only delighted in music, but had the 
nicest perception as to who was the best musician in 
the room (at least pussy's opinion and mine always 
agreed), and she would distinguish her musical 
favourite by extreme marks of approbation and 
applause. 

What a deadly thing it is when once a man has got 
a theory or a doctrine into his head to which he must 



THEIR MASTERS. 89 

make everything bend ! Or, to put it after the fashion 
of Berkeley, Whether a man ever makes a greater 
fool of his understanding than when he adopts some 
theory, moral, metaphysical, or theological, which he 
thinks will explain all morality, theology, or meta- 
physics, and which admits of no exceptions ? 

Cranmer. I foresee that we shall be inundated with 
queries from Ellesmere, put in the Berkeleyan form ; 
and that we shall come to dread the word ' Whether ' 
as much as Ellesmere dreads the words ' That reminds 
me.' 

Ellesmere. I flatter myself that I know exactly 
when a man becomes a bore. I wish that other 
people were as sensitive upon that point as I am. 

But I must tell you something which Milverton 
said, in the course of these ten days that we have had 
together, touching this subject, and which really was 
not a foolish remark. He was telling me how these 
theories arose which were so inimical to animals : as, 
for instance, that certain philosophers had come to 
the conclusion that there were only two things in the 
world, namely matter and soul. Now they did not 
like to say that the brutes had soul, for there was but 
one kind of soul, and that was possessed by man. 
They did not even like to admit of any admixture of 
soul and matter, which would create an inferior kind 
of soul. Consequently, having the full courage of 



90 ANIMALS AXD 

their opinions, they resolved to say that brutes were 
only compounded of matter, and did not indulge in 
lii g& 

All this, however, was merely information that he 
ve me. Now for his genera] remark. He said, 
Oil may almost always detect the severe, hard, 
cruel man, by his dislike, even in matters of the in- 
tellect, to admit o\ exception-. Never, he added, 
come under the power of a man, if you can help it, 
whom you perceive to have an especial aversion to 
nit exceptions to any theory or any rule he has once 
laid down. That man will be a very hard man to 
deal with/ 

This discourse pleased me, for I am a lover of ex- 
ceptions, and am consequently rather a soft and gentle 
person to deal with. 

Cranmer* Objections are not exceptions; or, to 
t the matter more plainly, captious objections are 
not n< -arils- judicious exceptions. 

llesmere. This man has been very angry with me 
ever since I said that he would make a good tortoise 
in a future state of existence ; and he has been anxious 
to show that there are creatures of the tortoise species 
endowed with much force and vivacity — snapping- 
turtles. for example. 

Mih'crton. This digression is very gratifying tome, 



as showing that I once made a sensible remark ; but 






THEIR MASTERS. g\ 

may I entreat you, Ellesmcre, as a reward for this 
exertion on my part, to allow me to go on with my 
subject ? I will at once furnish you with a singular 
contrast to the words of the severe schoolman, Thomas 
Aquinas, in the pretty sayings of dear old Montaigne. 
He says : — 

If it be justice to render to everyone their due, the beasts 
that serve, love, and defend their benefactors / and that 
pursue and fall upon strangers and those who offend them, 
do in this represent a certain air of our justice : as also 
in observiiig a very equitable equality in the distribution of 
what they have to their young ; and as to friendship, they 
have it without comparison more lively and constant than 
men have. There are inclinations of affection, which some- 
times spring up in us without the consultation of reason, 
and by a fortuitous temerity, which others call sympathy : 
of which beasts are capable as we : we see horses take 
such an acquaintance with one another, that we have much 
ado to make them eat or travel when separated ; we ob- 
serve them to fancy a particular colour in those of their own 
kind, and, where they meet it, nin to it with great joy and 
demonstrations of good-will, and have a dislike and hatred 
for some other colour. Animals have choice, as well as we, 
in their amours ; neither are they exempt from our jealousies 
and implacable malice. 

This occurs in his ' Apology for Raimondde Sebonde.' 
In another essay, that on cruelty, he says : — 

I hardly ever take any beast or bird alive that I do not 
presently turn loose. Pythagoras bought them, and fishes, of 



92 ANIMALS AND 

huntsmen, fowlers, and fishermen, to do the same. Those 
natures that are sanguinary towards beasts, discover a natural 
propensity to cruelty. After they had accustomed themselves 
at Rome to spectacles of the slaughter of animals, they pro- 
ceeded to those of the slaughter of men, the gladiators. 
Nature has herself, I doubt, imprinted in man a kind of 
instinct to inhumanity ; nobody takes pleasure in seeing beasts 
play and caress one another, but everyone is delighted with 
seeing them dismember and tear one another to pieces. And 
that I may not be laughed at for the sympathy I have with 
them, Theology itself enjoins us some favour in their behalf; 
and considering that one and the same master has lodged us 
together in this palace for his service, and that they as well 
as we are of his family, it has reason to enjoin us some 
affection and regard to them. 

Ellesmere. How pleased Montaigne would have 
been with Horace Walpole (you needn't remark, 
Cranmer, that this is < impossible/ because Horace 
Walpole lived some years after Montaigne) — how 
pleased he would have been, I say, if he could have 
read that letter of Walpole's to his friend, Lord Straf- 
ford, in which, if I recollect rightly, he commemorates 
the loss of a dog, and says something of this kind, < If 
I could have a friend possessing such fidelity, I should 
not at all mind his having two additional legs.' 

Milverton. From Montaigne I pass to Petrarch, 
who, in his c View of Human Life,' has the following 
charming passage : — 



THEIR MASTERS. 93 

Leave all animals to their proper places and their proper 
uses ; those that are wild to the woods, and the direction 
of Providence for their haunts and their destination ; and 
domestic animals to those whose wide grounds and fields can 
with wholesome and true care nourish them for thy table, 
and coop them not up to fret, and waste, and scrape, and 
litter in thy small inclosures or narrow courts. Suffer also 
the little birds to live in the open air ; there to feed, to 
multiply, to sing, to stretch out their wings, and smooth 
their little breasts in joy , and ye little babes, as saith 
Solomon, turn ye at my rebuke, bring them not to you to 
pine and die in your domestic prisons ; but rather go to 
them, stretch forth your slothful minds unto Heaven, and 
join in the full choir of praise to that Power who created the 
birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, and man to 
govern them all, wisely and kindly, for his good. * 

From Petrarch I pass to Fuller, who, in describing 
the good Master, says : — 

He is tender of his servant in his sicknesse and age. If 
crippled in his service, his house is his hospital ; yet how 
many throw away those dry bones, out of the which them- 
selves have suck'd the marrow? It is as usuall to see a 
young serving-man an old beggar, as to see a light horse 
first from the great saddle of a nobleman to come to the 
hackney-coach, and at last die drawing a carre. But the 
good master is not like the cruell hunter in the fable, who 
beats his old dogge, because his to'othlesse mouth let go 

* Mrs. Dobson's Translation, 1797. 



94 ANIMALS AND 

the game : he rather imitates the noble nature of our Prince 
Henry, who took order for the keeping of an old English 
mastiffe, which had made a lion runne away. Good reason, 
good service in age should be rewarded. And well may 
masters consider how easie a transposition it had been for 
God, to have made him to mount into the saddle that holds 
the stirrup, and him to sit down at the table, who stands by 
with a trencher. 

The above is not a passage directly bearing upon 
the subject of animals, but it is all the more striking 
on that ground, as it shows how completely Fuller 
identified the good service of an animal with the 
good service of a serving-man. 

Everyone knows the sayings of St. Francis of 
Assisi respecting animals, and how he called the 
birds his ' dear brothers and sisters.' A modern 
writer of the saint's life thus describes the love of 
the saint for all created beings : — 

L'amour de saint Francois pour la nature n'est pas 
moins ceLbre dans les legendes que son inepuisable mansue- 
tude. Et ce qu'il a de particulier, c'est qu'il ne se restraint 
pas dans son coeur a un etre particulier et a quelques 
moments diffusion, il s'etend a tout ce qui existe et anime 
pour ainsi dire chaque instant de sa vie. Ici, nous le voyons 
se detourner pour ne pas ecraser le ver du chemin. La, 
assis pres d'un figuier, il appelle une cigale et lui commande 
de louer Dieu ; la cigale obeit, vole sur sa main, et tous les 
jours elle venait visiter le patriarche des pauvres et lui 



THEIR MASTERS. 95 

elever le coeur par ses chants. L'biver verm, il avait une 
grande crainte que les abeilles ne mourussent de froid, et il 
leur faisait apporter du miel et du vin. * 

I think we may assume that the tenets of their 
great founder respecting animals, were held in re- 
verence by the Franciscan monks. One instance of 
the kind I remember to have seen noticed by 
Humboldt. He mentions that a Franciscan, who 
had accompanied him through some of the most 
difficult country in South America, used to say, when 
apprehensive of a storm at night, ' May Heaven grant 
a quiet night both to us and to the wild beasts of the 
forest ! ' Humboldt had mentioned that a storm at 
night creates great terror and confusion among these 
wild beasts. 

Again, the greatest poets in all ages have been 
great admirers of animals, and their sayings would 
form a code of tenderness for these our fellow- 
creatures. Throughout Shakespeare's writings, for 
instance, you can detect the love that he had for 
animals. 

Ellesmere. I don't think much of that. Shake- 
speare understood everybody and everything, and 
accordingly liked everybody and everything. J 

* Saint Francois d'Assise, par Frederic Morin. Paris, 

1853- 



96 ANIMALS AND 

Cranmcr. Certainly. It is clear he understood all 
aoout lawyers, and yet he never speaks unkindly 
even of them. 

Ellcsmcrc. How sharp Cranmer is becoming; but 
I wish he would not always whet his wit on me. 

Milverton* Now I am going to quote a very 
remarkable passage or series of passages ; and what 
is remarkable in them is this — that somewhat of the 
same idea as that put forth by Seneca, by Thomas 
Aquinas, by Descartes (by Leibnitz also, if I recollect 
rightly), has evidently some hold upon a compara- 
tively modern poet — a very religious man. You see 
the same course of thought; and you feci that if this 
man had lived in the times of Thomas Aquinas, he 
would have agreed with the 'Angelic Doctor.' It 
is from Young's ' Night Thoughts.' He is proving 
that the soul of man is immortal. Young, I am 
afraid, is very little read now, but it seems to me 
that he is a great poet. 

If such is man's allotment, what is heav'n ? 

Or own the soul immortal, or blaspheme. 

Or own the soul immortal, or invert 

All order. Go, mock-majesty ! go, man ! 

And bow to thy superiors of the stall ; 

Thro' every scene of sense superior far : 

They graze the turf untill'd, they drink the stream 

Unbrew'd, and ever full, and unembitter'd 

With doubts, fears, fruitless hopes, regrets, despairs ; 



THEIR MASTERS. 97 

Mankind's peculiar, Reason's precious -dovv'r ! 

No foreign clime they ransack for their robes ; 

Nor brothers cite to the litigious bar ; 

Their good is good entire, unmix'd, unmarr'd ; 

They find a paradise in every field, 

On boughs forbidden where no curses hang : 

Their ill, no more than strikes the sense, unstretch'd 

By previous dread, or murmur in the rear ; 

When the worst comes, it comes unfear'd ; one stroke 

Begins and ends their woe : they die but once ; 

Blest, incommunicable privilege ! for which 

Proud man, who rules the globe, and reads the stars, 

Philosopher, or hero, sighs in vain. 

Then, having said so much for brute life, he restores 
man to his supremacy, of course inferring that there 
is no future existence for brutes : — 

Account for this prerogative in brutes. 

No day, no glimpse of day, to solve the knot, 

But what beams on it from eternity. 

O sole and sweet solution ! That unties 

The difficult and softens the severe, 

The cloud on Nature's beauteous face dispels, 

Restores bright order, casts the brute beneath, 

And re- enthrones us in supremacy 

Of joy, ev'n here ; admit immortal life, 

And virtue is knight-errantry no more \ 

Each virtue brings in hand a golden dow'r. 

Far richer in reversion : hope exults ; 

And, tho' much bitter in our cup is thrown, 

Predominates, and gives the taste of heav'n. 

The philosophers whom we have quoted do not 

trouble themselves about the lot in this life assigned to 

H 



93 



ANIMALS AND 



the animal creation. Several of them, indeed, con- 
clude that the animals have no such lot, inasmuch as 
they are mere phenomena and simulacra ; but Young 
could not do that, and would not wish to do that. He 
gives them a certain glory and a certain fulness of 
happiness in this life. He is not perplexed by the 
thought which presses upon the severe thinker, Bayle, 
and which, I doubt not, has been shared by many a 
thinker, especially in modern times. 

' Les actions des betes,' says Bayle, ' sont peut-etre un des 
plus profonds abimes sur quoi notre raison se puisse ex- 
ercer ; et je suis surpris que si peu de gens s'en aper- 
^oivent.' 

Sir Arthur, Without pretending to be a severe 
thinker, I entirely accord with what Bayle says upon 
the subject. 

Milverton. Most appropriately does our friend 
Johnson now hand me a book in which there is a 
quotation from Dr. Arnold. He says : — 

It should seem as if the primitive Christians, by laying so 
much stress upon a future life in contradistinction to this 
life, and placing the lower creatures out of the pale of hope, 
placed them at the same time out of the pale of sympathy, 
and thus laid the foundation for this utter disregard of ani- 
mals in the light of our fellow- creatures. Their definition 
of virtue was the same as Paley's — that it was good per- 
formed for the sake of ensuring everlasting happiness — which 
of course excluded all the so-called brute creatures. Kind, 



THEIR MASTERS, 99 

loving, submissive, conscientious, much-enduring, we know 
them to be ; but because we deprive them of all stake in 
the future, because they have no selfish, calculated aim, 
these are not virtues ; yet if we say * a vicious horse,' why 
not say ' a virtuous horse ' ? 

I think this comes in well after what we have heard 
from Young's c Night Thoughts.' Johnson found it in 
a work of Mrs. Jameson's,* who has written very well 
upon the subject. She also gives the following pas- 
sage from Jeremy Bentham : — 

The day may come when the rest of the animal creation 
may acquire those rights which never could have been with- 
held from them but by the hand of tyranny. It may come 
one day to be recognized that the number of legs, the villo- 
sity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are 
reasons insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the 
caprice of a tormentor. What else is it that should trace the 
insuperable line ? Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps the 
faculty of discourse? But a full-grown horse or dog is 
beyond comparison a more rational as well as a more con- 
versable animal than an infant of a day, a week, or even a 
month old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what 
would it avail ? The question is not l can they reason ? 
nor * can they speak ? ' but ' can they suffer ? ' 

I quote that passage because the final sentence is 
exactly like one that I gave you the other day from 
Voltaire's essay, and it really contains the gist of the 



* Mrs. Jameson's { Commonplace Book of Thoughts, 
Memories, and Fancies.' London, 1854. 

H 2 



ioo ANIMALS AND 

subject. Johnson, I see. wishes to read us something 
from an author who has written very well upon this 
subject. 

Johnson. It is from Grindon's ' Life : its Nature, 
Varieties, and Phenomena.' He says : — 

The doctrine of the immortality of brutes is an exceed- 
ingly ancient one. The Indian, whose blissful heaven con- 
sists of exhaustless hunting-grounds, does but reflect from 
the forests of the West what is thousands of years old in the 
Odyssey : — 'After him I beheld vast Orion, hunting, in the 
meadows of asphodel, beasts which he had killed in the 
desert mountains, having a brazen club in his hands, for ever 
unbroken.' Virgil, in his sixth book, enumerates animals 
seen by ^Eneas in the kingdom of Pluto ; Hercules, in 
Theocritus, finishes the narration of his great exploit of 
slaying the Nemaean lion by saying that * Hades received 
a monster soul.' 'As brutes,' says Richard Dean, Curate 
of Middleton in 1768, 'have accompanied man in all his 
capital calamities (as deluges, famines, and pestilences), so 
will they attend him in his final deliverance.' Dr. Bar- 
clay (' Inquiry,' &c, p. 339) pleads that, for aught we know, 
brutes may be immortal, ' reserved, as forming many of the 
accustomed links in the chain of being, and by preserving 
the chain entire, contribute, in the future state, as they do 
here, to the general beauty and variety of the universe, a 
source, not only of sublime, but of perpetual delight.' 

Milverton. I must now give you a bit from an old 
translation of ' Plutarch's Lives.'* It occurs in his life 

* 'Plutarch's Lives,' translated by Sir Thomas North, 
Knight. London, 161 2. 



THEIR MASTERS. ioi 

of that hard man, Marcus Cato, whom the biographer 
is blaming : — 

For, we see, gentlenesse goeth further than justice. For 
nature teacheth us to use justice only to slaves, but gentle- 
nesse sometimes is shewed unto bruite beasts : and that 
cometh from the very fountaine and spring of all courtesie 
and humanity, which should never dry up in any man living. 
For to say truly, to keep cast horses spoiled in our service, 
and dogs also, not onely when they are whelpes, but when 
they be old, be even tokens of love and kindness. As the 
Athenians made a law, when they builded their temple 
called Hecatompedon ; that they should suffer the moyles and 
mulets that did service in their carriages about the building 
of the same, to graze everywhere, without let or trouble of 
any man. 

Ellesmere. I like the idea of using courtesy to 
animals. They are very appreciative of politeness, and 
observant of the reverse. They like to be laughed 
with, but have a great objection to be laughed at. 

I think I mentioned to you at the beginning of our 
conversation that I had not been a useless searcher. 
It was only when I came upon i Berkeley's Querist ' 
that I ceased to act as a pointer dog for Milverton. 
Now in Hudibras 

Cranmer. I believe no other human being but 
Sir John would ever have thought of looking in 
Hudibras. 

Ellesmere. In Hudibras there is a sly hit at the 



102 ANIMALS AND 

sayings of the philosophers, which is exceedingly well 

put : — 

They rode, but authors having not 
Determin'd whether pace or trot, 
That is to say, whether tollutation, 
As they do term't, or succussation, 
We leave it, and go on, as now 
Suppose they did, no matter how ; 
Yet some, from subtle hints have got 
Mysterious lights it was a trot : 
But let that pass ; they now begun 
To spur their living engines on : 
For as whipp'd tops and bandy'd balls, 
The learned hold, are animals ; * 
So horses they affirm to be 
Mere engines made by geometry, 
And were invented first from engines, 
As Indian Britons were from penguins. 

Observe the sly way in which he insinuates that the 



[* The atomic philosophers Democritus, Epicurus, &c, and 
some of the moderns likewise, as Descartes, Hobbes, and 
others, will not allow animals to have a spontaneous and 
living principle in them, but maintain that life and sensation 
are generated out of matter, from the contexture of atoms, or 
some peculiar composition of magnitudes, figures, sites and 
motions, and consequently that they are nothing but local 
motion and mechanism. By such argument tops and balls 
seem as much animated as dogs and horses. Mr. Boyle, in 
his 'Experiments,' printed in 1659, observes how like animals 
(men excepted) are to mechanical instruments. — Note in the 
Rev. Dr. NasKs edition of Hudibras^\ 



THEIR MASTERS, 103 

same arguments which made animals to be machines, 
would make whipped tops into animals. 

Cranmer. Did you suggest Hudibras to Ellesmere, 
Milverton ? 

Elles7nere. Not he : nothing so sensible. He 
always gave me books that required a constant and 
humiliating reference to dictionaries. After a certain 
age, one becomes a little tired of looking into diction- 
aries. 

I wish you could have seen and heard the insinuat- 
ing way in which he would endeavour to inflict the most 
dreadful books upon me. On a fine morning, after 
breakfast, when I am most radiant, and anybody 
can get me to do almost anything, he would come up 
to me and say, c My dear Ellesmere, here is the Trac- 
tatus Theologico-P oliticus, a work of Spinoza's, one 
of his best, as the critics say : I dare say you have not 
read much of Spinoza ' (just as if I had ever read any 
of him !) ( You will find it very interesting ; and there 
is sure to be something in it relating to our subject.' 

Well ! what can one say to a man in his own house 
when one has just been eating his bread and butter ? 
I felt that I was looking very blank and disheartened. 
I looked out of the window, too, but the hint was not 
taken ; and so I went away sorrowfully with my 
Tractatus to my own room. I read twenty pages of 
it, but can assure you that there were no three con- 



104 ANIMALS AXD 

secutive sentences of which I could thoroughly make 
out the meaning. So I cast the book down; and, 
from the love of contrast, took up Hudibras; and 
there, as you see, I had what boys call < a good find.' 

Milverton. Ellesmere showed me that passage 
from Hudibras, and I was at first much puzzled to 
understand what Hudibras meant by using the word 
1 Penguins.' A passage, however, in a work of Georgq 
Lewes's, a writer on biology of wonderful clearness and 
truthfulness, explains the whole thing. And it is well 
worth quoting for its own sake. 

It is curious to find nun in all ages laying so much stress 
on a very unimportant peculiarity, and making man's 
supremacy to consist in a power of gazing upwards, which is 
shared by every goose that waddles across his path. 

' L'homme 6\kve un front noble et regarde les cieux ' 
says Louis Racine, in imitation of Ovid's well-known lines: 
' Pronaque cum Spectent animalia camera terram, 
Os homini sublime dedit, ccelumque tueri 
Jussit.' 

Galen justly ridicules this notion ; it is, he says, refuted jy 
the fact that there are fish which always have their eyes 
directed towards the heavens, and that man can only direct 
his eyes upwards by bending back his head. As to the 
erect position, no one till Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire thought 
of the familiar fact that many birds, such as penguins, have 
the vertical attitude, and some mammals— such as the gerboa 
and kangaroo— approach it very closely. If the attitude of 
man is more perfectly erect, this is but a question of degree, 
not worth making a cardinal distinction. 









THEIR MASTERS. 105 

Sir Arthur. I am sorry to say, Milverton, that 
you have still failed in explaining the passage in 
Hudibras. Dr. Nash justly says, that when Hudibras 
mentioned penguins, he meant to ridicule his friend, 
Selden, who had a notion that the Welsh had dis- 
covered America, on account of the similarity of some 
words in the two languages. ' Penguin, the name of 
a bird with a white head in America, in British signi- 
fies a white rock ;' but I am very glad that you quoted 
the passage from Lewes, because it gives me the op- 
portunity of mentioning other foolish notions which 
men have taken up in order to show their infinite 
superiority to animals. The great Aristotle claims 
superiority for man because he is ticklish, and the 
other animals are not, and he puts forth this amazing 
statement — ' Man, alone, presents the phenomenon of 
heart-beating, because he, alone, is moved by hope 
and expectation of what is coming.' 

Milverton. Yes ; and Lew r es makes this good re- 
mark upon the passage : — i One would fancy that 
Aristotle had never held a bird in his hand.' 

Ellesmere. Really, I am thankful that I am not a 
philosopher. If I were, I should be so ashamed of the 
sayings of a great many of my brother philosophers. 

Milverton, Now to return to the Tractatus Theo- 
logico-Politicus. Owing to Ellesmere's idleness, I 
had to look through this book, of the difficulties in 



106 ANIMALS AND 

which he speaks in such exaggerated terms, and I 
found one passage which clearly indicates that Spinoza 
did not adopt the views of Descartes about animals, for 
he contrasts animals with automata: — Non, tnquam, 
ft) lis rcipubliccB est homines ex ratio?ialibus bestias 
vel ait ton at a faeere, sea 7 eontra ut eornm me?is et 
corpus tuto suis fu)tctio)iibus fungantur^ et ipsi liberd 
ratione utautur, et 7ie odio, ira, vel dolo eertejtt, nee 
an into iniqtto invicem ferantur* 

Ellesntere. I trust we shall now have a little respite 
from questionable Latin. But we have not yet heard 
much from Sir Arthur. I expected him to have 
brought a fearful amount of learned grist to the mill ! 

Sir Arthur. I had prepared a great many pas- 
sages from the Latin poets, to show their feelings of 
kindliness towards animals. 

Elles7)terc. I do think we may consider those as 
read. 

Sir Arthur. I told you, Ellesmere, that I had pre- 
pared ; meaning to convey to your mind that I did not 
intend to inflict these passages upon you. After all, 
they prove but little. One knows beforehand that 
sensitive men, such as poets are, would be sure to take 
a kindly view of the animal creation ; and, moreover, 
that their habits of observation would make them 
notice the ways of animals, and feel a regard for them. 

* Cap. xx. p. 227. 









THEIR MASTERS. 107 

Milverton is quite right when he says, 'You have 
only to observe their habits to become fond of them ; ' 
arid that, by the way, is the reason why I venture to 
differ a little from Milverton and Petrarch in any pro- 
test they make against the keeping of pets. 

I must give you one quotation from Lucretius. It 
is not that it bears closely upon the subject, but because 
it sounds to me so grand. I particularly admire the 
word bacchatur, which, as you will hear, occurs in the 
passage : — 

At novitas mundi nee frigora dura ciebat, 
Nee nimios sestus, nee magnis viribus auras : 
Omnia enim pariter crescunt, et robora sumunt. 
Quare etiam atque etiam maternum nomen adepta 
Terra tenet merito, quoniam genus ipsa creavit 
Humanum, atque animal prope certo tempore fudit 
Omne, quod in magnis bacchatur montibu' passim, 
Aeriasque simul volucreis variantibu' formis. 

This is Munro's translation: — 

But the early age of the world gave forth neither severe 
cold, nor extraordinary heat, nor winds of impetuous vio- 
lence. For all these alike increase and acquire strength by 
ti?ne. 

For which cause, / say again and again, the earth has 
justly acquired, and justly retains, the name of mother, 
since she herself brought forth the race of men, and pro- 
duced, at this certain time, almost every kind of animal 
which exults over the vast mountains, and the birds of the 
air, at the same period, with all their varied forms. 



108 ANIMALS AND 

I said just now that the poets were sure to speak 

kindly of animals ; but when a man was a poet and a 

Pythagorean too, it was doubly incumbent upon him 

to promote a merciful feeling towards animals. I find 

that Xenophanes, as translated by Mr. Edwin Arnold 

in his ' Poets of Greece/ says : — 

Going abroad, he saw one day a hound was beaten sore ; 
Whereat his heart grew pitiful : * Now beat the hound no 

more ! 
Give o'er thy cruel blows,' he cried ; * a man's soul verily 
Is lodged in that same crouching beast — I know him by 

the cry. : 



?* 



Ellesmere. I think we have got off very easily from 
the weight of Latin poetry which Sir Arthur would 
have poured out upon us with that rotund utterance 
which scholars delight in, dwelling upon each word as 
if it were a pleasure and an honour to utter it. 

Milverton. I am now going to take you far away 
from the Romans to David Hume. In his essays, 
there is. a section entitled * Of the Reason of Animals/ 
He gives instances of the sagacity of animals, and 
says : — 

A horse that has been accustomed to the field, becomes 
acquainted with the proper height which he can leap, and 

* Kal irore /jlli/ (Trv^eXi^o/xevov <TKv\aKo^ irapiSvra 
<pao\v iiroLKTelpai Kal r6de (fxiaOai eiros' 
Tiavcrai /xrjSe pdiri^' , iirei^ (piKov avepos £(Tt\ 
tyvX^ T V tyvuv (p9ey^aiji4vr}s atoop. 



THEIR MASTERS. 109 

will never attempt what exceeds his force and ability. An 
old greyhound will trust the more fatiguing part of the chase 
to the younger, and will place himself so as to meet the hare 
in her doubles ; nor are the conjectures which he forms on 
this occasion founded in anything but his observation and 
experience. 

But then Hume will not allow you to say that this 
sagacity results from a conclusion that 'like events 
must follow like objects, and that the course of nature 
must always be regular in its operations/ 

On the contrary, he says : — 

Animals, therefore, are not guided in these inferences by 
reasoning : neither are children ; neither are the generality 
of mankind in their ordinary actions and conclusions ; neither 
are philosophers themselves, who, in all the active parts of 
life, are in the main the same with the vulgar, and are 
governed by the same maxims. Nature must have provided 
some other principle, of more ready and more general use 
and application ; nor can an operation of such immense 
consequence in life as that of inferring effects from causes, 
be trusted to the uncertain process of reasoning and argu- 
mentation. 

Now this appears to me to be a most sensible way 
of looking at the matter. I confess I had never 
thought of it in this way before. What Hume means 
by ' some other principle * may be seen from the 
following sentence which occurs at another part of 
the essay : — 

It seems evident that animals, as well as men, learn 
many things from experience, and infer that the same events 



no ANIMALS AND 

will always follow from the same causes. By this principle 
they become acquainted with the more obvious properties of 
external objects, and gradually, from their birth, treasure 
up a knowledge of the nature of fire, water, earth, stones, 
heights, depths, &c, and the effects which result from their 
operation. 

Ellesmere. I really think this is excellent. What 
a relief it is to come from the wiredrawn nonsense of 
Seneca, Thomas Aquinas, and Descartes, to the broad 
common sense of this thoughtful Scotchman ! Now 
Milverton never gave me such an author as Hume to 
study. I should have been sure to have noted these 
passages. 

Milverton. Now shall I leave off? I am afraid of 
wearying you with these quotations; but I am desirous 
of bringing before you a great body of evidence, to 
show what have been the thoughts of remarkable men, 
for many ages, respecting the nature and treatment of 
animals. And I have still a good deal more to bring 
forward on this subject. 

Ellesmere. I am for leaving off. My mind is one 
that soon becomes tired of much contemplation. I 
decline, for instance, to see more than six pictures at 
a time in any gallery. I shall give much more atten- 
tion to the subject if you will humour my proneness to 
intellectual fatigue. 

Sir Arthur. I confess I should wish to go on. 



THEIR MASTERS. in 

I like to have a great quantity of evidence brought 
before me at once ; and I have no doubt, Cranmer 
would too ; but we must humour this spoilt child, 
Ellesmere, and so you, Milverton, must stop for the 
present 



U2 ANIMALS AA T D 



CHAPTER V. 

The conversation was thus resumed on the 
following morning : — 

Cranmer. Have you not often remarked that when 
one has any particular subject in one's thoughts, that 
subject seems to be brought up on all occasions ? It 
seems almost as if it was in the air that surrounded 
you. Of course, this is an utter delusion. It is 
merely that one's attention is aroused to everything 
that is said by anybody bearing upon the subject. 

Ellesmere. Observe, how afraid Cranmer is of ad- 
mitting, that there is anything magical or mysterious 
in the world. Now I, being of a romantic and poeti- 
cal nature, believe that Cranmer is so deeply im- 
pressed with the subject we are discussing, that a 
certain sense of it radiates from him unconsciously, 
and affects all the people who come within the sphere 
of influence of that magnetic mind. Now, go on? 
Cranmer. 



THEIR MASTERS. 113 

Cranmer. Well, when I left you the other day, I 
was thinking over our subject, when suddenly a gen- 
tleman in the train said that he had been witness to a 
great instance of cruelty to living creatures, which 
had been brought under his notice at a station on the 
railway. He said that he was a member of that excel- 
lent Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 
and had communicated with them upon the subject. 
I asked him to give me a written statement of the 
facts he had observed. Here it is, I will read it to you: — 

At seven o'clock on the night of the 7th inst. thirty- six 
boxes of live geese arrived at Waterloo Station from St. 

Malo, via Southampton, consigned to Mr. , Leadenhall 

Market. Each box appeared to be three feet four inches 
long, two feet wide, and sixteen inches deep; and all were 
made of rough jagged-edged deal planks, left with openings 
between each plank at the top and sides. In every box, so 
far as I could tell, from nine to twelve geese were huddled 
together so closely that none could move except by trampling 
one over another ; or by getting a neck, head, or wing out 
of one of the openings. Some of the geese were screaming, 
many were lying down with heads and necks extended, 
seemingly quite exhausted ; several were dead. I could 
count three, but believe there must have been more, the 
boxes being so placed in a mass on the platform that* I could 
only examine closely those that were outermost. 

It was painful to see heads, necks, and wings protruding 
from the boxes, so firmly fixed in openings that moderate 
force could not remove them. But it was still more painful 
to see how eagerly those geese which could get their heads 
out freely drank up some water the porters sprinkled on the 

I 



Ii 4 ANIMALS AND 

boxes. The geese were so crowded together it would have 
been impossible to give them either food or water in the 
boxes, and I greatly fear they must have been left in them all 
night, as there was no preparation for their removal when I 
left at twenty minutes past eleven. I could not learn how 
long they had been in the boxes. 

Now, isn't this shocking ! 

Mrs. Milverton. Abominable. 

Lady Ellesmere. It is all very well to speak scorn- 
fully of us women ; but I do seriously think, that if 
we had more voice in the management of affairs, these 
things which you call minor matters would be very 
differently managed. Say what you like, we are more 
humane. To feel deeply for these creatures is just the 
sort of thing that many men would laugh at, and call it 
sentimental, and a spurious kind of humanity, merely 
because the creatures are not big. 

Eliesviere. Please don't include me among the 
naughty men whom you condemn. I detest cruelty to 
any creature, whether big or little. But now, Milver- 
ton, comes the difficult question of what ought to be 
done in this case. You can't well attempt to legislate 
upon th*e subject of geese. 

Sir Arthur. I am not prepared to admit that. We 
do legislate about other birds. 

Milverton. Yes ; there would come that foolish 
ridicule which the Scripture likens to i the crackling 
of thorns under a pot ' ; and I doubt, Sir Arthur, 



THEIR MASTERS. 115 

whether even your eloquence, backed by Cranmer's 
skill and perseverence, could get a Bill on the subject 
of geese through Parliament. 

First, however, I must ask Cranmer whether he 
will admit that, according to the supreme laws of po- 
litical economy, we may interfere. 

Cranmer. Of course I do. It is really a shame 
always to fix upon me some extravagant interpretation 
of these laws. 

Milverton. Well, then, I will tell you how I should 
propose to deal with such a matter. I, myself, think 
nothing small that is inhuman, but I own to you that 
I have a great fear of the damage that ridicule might 
do to any proposed legislation, which should have for 
its object, directly, the improvement of transit for the 
smaller creatures. I know as well as possible, that 
even our present discussions would be carped at on 
account of their being chiefly devoted to humanity to 
animals. People would say, i Are there not enormous 
grievances which affect the higher creatures of crea- 
tion, and had you not better attack these grievances 
first ? ' Well, in former days we used to discuss the 
subject of slavery, and I am sure we have discussed 
enough the subject of war. On the present occasion 
we forsake mankind for the moment, and endeavour to 
say something for those poor creatures that can say 
nothing for themselves. 

1 2 



Ii6 ANIMALS AND 

Ellesmere. But what is your plan, Milverton? 
How would you legislate so as to check the inhumanity 
in question ? 

Milverton. I want the whole subject of the transit 
of living creatures to be reconsidered. Nothing in 
this world is an unmixed benefit. The increased fa- 
cility of locomotion by railway has introduced new 
elements of difficulty into the whole question. 

How I should endeavour to meet this particular 
case, is by the adoption of some general rules, similar 
to those which have been introduced into the Passen- 
gers' Act, 1855, an d subsequent Acts, with relation to 
the transit of human beings. Don't let us talk about 
ducks, or geese, or any such small fry ; but let us con- 
tend for a provision of this kind — that in all cases of 
transit of living creatures a certain space should be 
allowed, bearing some proportion to the size of the 
creatures respectively. 

Lady Ellesmere. Such a provision, although no 
doubt, a very good thing, will not alone satisfy me, 
Leonard. The form given to the means of conveyance 
must also be considered. Now, in this very case, it is 
evident that these poor birds suffered greatly on account 
of that form being most inappropriate. What a car- 
go of animal suffering this was, that your friend in the 
railway spoke of, Mr. Cranmer ! It horrifies one to 
think sometimes of what other creatures are suffering 



THEIR MASTERS. 117 

while we are sleeping. Imagine their nights of suffer- 
ing ! Think only of one thing, the want of water ! ! 
Now, Leonard, if you have any regulations for the 
transit of animals, due supply of water must, indeed, 
be one of them. 

Ellesmere, I wish we could delegate to women 
some of this work. I should approve of this more 
than of their contending with me in the Queen's 
Bench, which at last, I suppose, they will insist upon. 

Milverton, I am going to say something rather 
rough and strong ; but I must say it. People talk 
of our being damned for this and that, using the 
word damnation very freely. I sometimes tnmk, when 
I meet with, or hear of, these cases of cruelty, that 
what we men run a risk of being damned for, is for our 
barbarity to these creatures who have been given into 
our complete dominion, and for our conduct to whom 
we shall be fearfully answerable. 

Sir Arthur, Now, Milverton, after this long 
episode, I think we shall return with greater zest to 
your quotations from sundry authors, seeing that from 
this instance, which Cranmer has brought before us, 
there is pressing need for the inculcation of humanity 
to animals from whatever source we can derive it. 

Milverton, The next author from whom I shall 
quote is Lord Brougham. His ' Dialogues on Instinct' 
is a remarkable book if only for its research, con- 



n8 ANIMALS AND 

sidering that it was written in 1837, when he was an 
active politician. 

Althorp. I can well suppose a difference merely in 
degree, sufficient to explain any diversity of condition or 
result. We have only to compare individual men together 
to perceive this. It is admitted that reason, nay, that the 
power of forming abstract ideas, as well as drawing inferences 
from premises, is possessed by persons whom yet you shall 
in vain attempt to teach the simplest mathematical demon- 
stration. Then their faculties differ only in degree from 
those by which Pascal learnt geometry without a master or a 
book, and Newton discovered Fluxions, and Lagrange and 
Euler the Calculus of Variations. It may truly be said, that 
there is no difference in kind which could make a greater 
diversity in the result. 

Brougham. It may indeed be truly so said ; but it may 
also be added, that there is not a greater difference, call it in 
kind or in degree, between the person whose obtuseness you 
have supposed and a sagacious retriever, or a clever ape, 
than between the great mathematicians you have named and 
that same person. Locke, whose calmness of understanding 
was equal to his sagacity, and never allowed his judgment 
to be warped by prejudice, or carried away by fancy and 
feelings, seems to have held this opinion, and indeed to have 
allowed some reason to animals. 'There are some brutes,' 
he observes, ' that seem to have as much knowledge and 
reason as some that are called men ;' and he goes on to say, 
that there is such a connexion between the animal and vege- 
table kingdom, as makes the difference scarcely perceptible 
between the lowest of the one and the highest of the 
other. * 

* Dialogues on Instinct \ p. 141, edit, of 1844. 



I 



THEIR MASTERS, 119 

I must, however, take a strong objection to the course 
of his argument, or rather, to one of the main facts on 
which it rests. I do not believe that anyone who has 
' the power of forming abstract ideas, as well as draw- 
ing inferences from premises ' could not be taught the 
simplest mathematical demonstration. 

It was an odd thing, Cranmer, that you should have 
thought of Search's ' Light of Nature Pursued ' being 
the book that Ellesmere was so delighted with, and 
scolded me for not having shown him before. This 
' Light of Nature Pursued/* which was written by a 
certain Abraham Tucker, does contain some remark- 
able passages bearing upon our subject. I shall give 
you one now, omitting certain parts of it, which, how- 
ever, I hope you will be industrious enough to read 
afterwards. You are quite right, Cranmer, in thinking 
that it is the kind of book that Ellesmere would take 
a great fancy to. 

Upon occasion of the divine care extendirg to the 
smallest things, I shall venture to put in a word on behalf of 
our younger brethren of the brutal species : yet it is with 
fear and trepidation, lest I should offend the delicacy of our 
imperial race, who may think it treason against their high 
pre-eminence and dignity, to raise a doubt of their engross- 
ing the sole care of heaven Since then, as well 

by God's special injunctions as by His ordinary Providence, 



* Tucker's Light of Nature Pursued, vol. 5, part 3, chap. 
19, edit, of 1777. 



120 ANIMALS AND 

he calls upon the creatures for their labours, their sufferings, and 
their lives, in the progress of His great work of the Redemp- 
tion, why should we think it an impeachment of His equity, 
if He assigns them wages for all they undergo in this im- 
portant service ? Or an impeachment of His power and His 
wisdom, if such wages accrue to them by certain stated 
laws of universal nature running through both worlds. 

In what manner the compensation is operated would be 
needless and impossible to ascertain : perhaps they stand 
only one stage behind us in the journey through matter, and 
as we hope to rise from sensitivo-rational creatures to purely 
rational, so they may be advanced from sensitive to sen- 
sitivo-rational. And when our nature is perfected, we may 
be employed to act as guardian angels for assisting them in 
the improvement of their new faculties, becoming lords, and 
not tyrants, of our new world, and exercising government by 
employing our superior skill and power for the benefit of the 
governed : by which way may be comprehended how they 
may have an interest of their own in everything relative to 
the forwarding of our Redemption. Yet it is not necessary 
they must have bodies shaped, limbed,' and sized exactly 
like ours : for the treasures of wisdom are not so scanty that 
we should pronounce with Epicurus, there can be no spice of 
reason or reflection, except in a human figure, and upon the 
surface of an earth circumstanced just like this we inhabit. 

We cut rather short our quotations from the poets on 
the assumption that, as men of sensibility, they would 
be sure to be on our side. I think, however, that when 
they have indulged in prose, and when they have 
devoted whole essays to the subject of the treatment 
of animals, they deserve to be quoted. Now the poet 



THEIR MASTERS. 121 

Pope has written such an essay. It is in the 61st 
number of the Guardian of the year 1713. It is a 
beautiful essay, and is admirably written, affording 
another instance of how well poets can write in 
prose when they condescend to do so. He commences 
thus : — 

I cannot think it extravagant to imagine that mankind are 
no less in proportion accountable for the ill-use of their 
dominion over creatures of the lower rank of beings, than 
for the exercise of tyranny over their own species. The 
more entirely the inferior creation is submitted to our power, 
the more answerable we should seem for our mismanagement 
of it ; and the rather, as the very condition of nature renders 
these creatures incapable of receiving any recompense in 
another life for their ill-treatment in this. 

He then enters very carefully into the subject, giving 
various instances of needless cruelty in man; and 
supporting his own views by reference to those of 
Montaigne, Locke, the Abbe* Fleury, Plutarch, Tellia- 
med. whose real name was De Maillet, Ovid, Dryden, 
and Pilpay. One other extract of his own writing 
I must give you. 

There is a passage in the book of Jonas, where God 
declares his lurwillingness to destroy Nineveh, where methinks 
that compassion of the Creator, which extends to the meanest 
rank of his creatures, is expressed with wonderful tenderness. 
* Should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are 
more than six score thousand persons . . . and also much 
cattle ? ' And we have in Deuteronomy a precept of great 



< 



122 ANIMALS AND 

good-nature of this sort, with a blessing in form, annexed 
to it, in those words ; ' If thou shalt find a bird's nest in 
the way, thou shalt not take the dam with the young : But 
thou shalt in any wise let the dam go ; that it may be well 
with thee, and that thou may'st prolong thy days.' 

As I have referred to the essayists of former days, 
I must give you a passage from an essay written by 
the tender-hearted Steele. In the course of the essay? 
he objects to any representation of cruelties being 
produced upon the stage ; and thus concludes : 

The virtues of tenderness, compassion, and humanity are 
those by which men are distinguished from brutes, as much 
as by reason itself; and it would be the greatest reproach to 
a nation, to distinguish itself from all others by any defect in 
these particular virtues. For which reasons, I hope that my 
dear countrymen will no longer expose themselves by an 
effusion of blood, whether it be of theatrical heroes, cocks, 
or any other innocent animals, which we are not obliged to 
slaughter for our safety, convenience, or nourishment. When 
any of these ends are not served in the destruction of a living 
creature, I cannot but pronounce it a great piece of cruelty, 
if not a kind of murder. * 

Mrs. Milverton. I think I may now venture, as the 
quotations have been less learned lately, to ask leave to 
read a passage from the life of my favourite author, 
George Herbert, written by Isaac Walton. 

Ellesmere. I am not sure that I shall not take an 

* Tatter, No. 134. 



THEIR MASTERS. 123 

objection, Mrs. Milverton, to anything that has been 
written by Isaac Walton. I do not like that man, and 
I think that Byron was not too severe when he called 
him ' a cruel coxcomb/ 

Milverton. That does not impeach the value of his 
evidence as a biographer. 

Mrs. Milverton. Certainly not ; at any rate you 
must let me read you the passage. 

In another walk to Salisbury, he saw a poor man with a 
poorer horse that was fallen under his load ; they were both 
in distress, and needed present help, which Mr. Herbert 
perceiving, put off hid canonical coat, and helped the poor 
man to unload, and after to load, his horse. The poor man 
blessed him for it, and he blessed the poor man ; and was so 
like the good Samaritan that he gave him money to refresh 
both himself and his horse ; and told him, ' that if he loved 
himself, he should be merciful to his beast.' Thus he left 
the poor man, and at his coming to his musical friends at 
Salisbury, they began to wonder that Mr. George Herbert, 
who used to be so trim and clean, came into that company 
so soiled and discomposed, but he told them the occasion : 
and when one of the company told him ' he had disparaged 
himself by so dirty an employment,' his answer was J that the 
thought of what he had done would prove music to him at 
midnight ; and that the omission of it would have upbraided 
and made discord in his conscience whensoever he should pass 
by that place : for if I be bound to pray for all that be in 
distress, I am sure that I am bound, so far as it is in 
my power, to practise what I pray for. And though I 
do not wish for the like occasion every day, yet let me 
tell you, I would not willingly pass one day of my life 



124 ANIMALS AND 

without comforting a sad soul, or shewing mercy, and I 
praise God for this occasion. And now let us tune our in- 
struments. '* 

Milvei'ton. When I was quoting from the life of St. 
Francis, I ought to have given you a remarkable ex- 
tract from a work which I am told had great au- 
thority in the middle ages. It is ' The Revelations of 
St. Bridget.' This book was attacked by the celebrated 
Gerson, but was formally approved by the Council of 
Basle. Here is the passage : — 

Let a man fear, above all, me, his God, and so much the 
gentler will he become towards my creatures and animals, on 
whom, on account of me, their Creator, he ought to have 
compassion ; for to that end was rest ordained for them on 
the Sabbath, f 

Lady Ellesinere. I wonder, Leonard, that you have 
not given us anything from the Spaniards, who are 
such great favourites of yours. 

Milverton. I could have given you many quotations 
from the great Spanish writers, including Cervantes, 
for you must remember both Don Quixote and Sancho 
Panza had a great regard for animals. 

But, to tell you the truth, I was a little disgusted by 
my research into Spanish authorities, at finding that it 
was a Spaniard, one Gomez Pereira, who, in con> 

* Remains of George Herbert. Life; p. 65. 
+ Digbfs Comfotum. Book ii. p. 57. 



THEIR MASTERS. 125 

paratively modern times — that is, before the age of 
Descartes — had devoted a work to announcing the 
discovery that animals had no feeling. Indeed, it is 
said that Descartes borrowed his ideas from this man; 
but that is a fable. It was entirely consonant with 
Descartes' metaphysical theories that he should main- 
tain that animals had no feeling. And what will a 
man not do, or say, to maintain intact his pet meta- 
physical theory, which is to explain all the conditions 
of the universe ? 

Sir Arthur. How one's views change as regards 
who is terrible, who is to be feared in this world. 
Time was, when I innocently thought that the descrip- 
tion given by the great German poet, Uhland, of a 
wicked king, brought before my mind the most 
dangerous being that could well be conceived : — 

£)enn wae er ftnnt/ tft ©cfyrecfen 5 tmb wag er bltytt tft 

2£ut*) 5 
Unb wag er ft rid) t/ tft @etfkl$ unb wag er fcfymbt, tji 

S3(ut. 

For what he thinks, is horror; and what he looks, is 

wrath ; 
And what he speaks, is scourges ; and what he writes, is 

blood. 

But now a much more fearful creature to my mind 
is a ' hidebound' pedant in power (perhaps in other 
respects a smooth, kind, good sort of man), cursed 



126 ANIMALS AND 

with a few distinct ideas, whether they relate to re- 
ligion, education, charity, taxation, or any other matter 
which greatly concerns the welfare of mankind. That 
is the man really to be feared — the man who is capable 
of doing the greatest mischief in his generation. And 
even if he is not in power, but has great intellectual 
influence, he is still a most alarming phenomenon. 

Ellesmere. Especially if he is not given to admitting 
any exceptions. But to return to Spain. My lady did 
not appeal to me about Spanish authorities, though 
she knows that when I was a juvenile I travelled with 
Milverton in Spain, and that I am completely versed 
in Spanish literature. 

Allow me to give you a Spanish song relating to 
animals, which I often heard my muleteers sing. It 
begins with the words — 

Mi muger y mi caballo — 

6 My wife and my horse.' It proceeds by enumerating 
their respective merits. It then goes on to say what a 
great loss it would be if he, the singer, were to lose 
one of these creatures, and what a small loss it would 
be if he were to lose the other, which could so easily 
be replaced. I forbear to say which is ' the one ' and 
which is ( the other.' 

Hereupon there ensued one of those conjugal 
quarrels of a humorous kind which have so often 



THEIR MASTERS. 127 

taken place in our presence between this well- 
assorted couple j and, amidst the general laughter 
of the company, the sitting was about to be broken 
up. when Sir Arthur begged to be heard. 

Sir Arthur. You all know what a liking I have — ■ 
almost a mania — for sesing what conclusions we have 
arrived at after any discussion. Of course we are all 
against that absurd theory of Descartes, that animals 
have no feeling. We will not listen to Seneca and 
the 'Angelic Doctor' when they maintain that animals 
cannot indulge in a feeling of anger which is similar 
to our own, or that they are incapable not merely of 
affection but of what we call benevolence. We are 
agreed upon the statements that they have keen 
memories (as keen, Milverton holds, as that of the 
late Lord Macaulay, which I take to be somewhat of 
an exaggeration) ; that many of them are highly 
sensitive creatures ; that this sensitiveness, which is 
often a very disturbing force to their masters, must be 
dealt with by kindness and not by blows; that, accord- 
ing to Cranmer, the education of young people is not 
to be without some definite instruction as to the nature 
of animals, and as to the best modes of treating them. 
We hear, with some approval, that Sir John Ellesmere 
says, that animals have a lively appreciation of fun 
and courtesy. By the way, if they were dull creatures, I 



128 ANIMALS AND 

am afraid that Sir John would not speak quite so affec- 
tionately of them. We find that the poets, and all 
men of sensibility, rate animals highly, and are fond of 
them. We are inclined to agree with Milverton, Voltaire, 
Mrs. Jameson, and sundry other persons, who say that 
they do not care so much about what animals think, 
but that what they suffer is the question. Lastly, we 
are pleased to hear, without pledging ourselves to an 
exact approval of details, that Milverton puts forward 
certain plans and projects for the better treatment of 
animals, having in view that their owners should be 
better informed about their habits, and that these 
owners should have the opportunity of learning how 
their deputies and hirelings treat the animals entrusted 
to their care ; that great heed should be taken as re- 
gards the transit of animals used for food, both on 
their account and our own ; that the keeping of pets 
should be discouraged (against which doctrine I for 
one enter a protest) ; and, generally, that the observa- 
tion of the habits, ways, and manners of animals 
would lead to a much more friendly relation being 
kept up between that first of animals, man, and the 
rest of the animated creation. 

Have I not given you something like a summary of 
the case ? Oh ! I forgot to mention that Sir John 
Ellesmere thinks that, if there were such a thing as 
transmigration, all women would be butterflies ; and 



THEIR MASTERS. 129 

that he declines to say, touching a certain Spanish 
song, whether it was the death of the horse, or of the 
wife, which would be the greater loss to the muleteer. 
Again I have forgotten to say that the dicta of 
Anaxagoras, Xenophanes, and David Hume passed 
with the least question from this intelligent company. 
Milverion. I desire to say something more, which 
I especially wish to be added to your summary. 

I can hardly express to you how much I feel 
there is to be thought of, arising from the use of 
the word l dumb ' as applied to animals. Dumb 
animals ! What an immense exhortation that is to 
pity ! It is a remarkable thing, that this word dumb 
should have been so largely applied to animals, for, in 
reality, there are very few dumb animals. But, doubt- 
less, the word is often used to convey a larger idea than 
that of dumbness, namely, the want of power in animals 
to convey by sound to mankind what they feel, or 
perhaps I should rather say the want of power in 
men to understand the meaning of the various sounds 
uttered by animals. 

But as regards those animals which are mostly dumb, 
such as the horse, which, except on rare occasions of 
extreme suffering, makes no sound at all, but only 
expresses pain by certain movements indicating pain 
— how tender we ought to be to them, and how obser- 
vant of these movements, considering their dumbness ! 

K 



130 ANIMALS AND 

The human baby guides and governs us by its cries. 
In fact, it will nearly rule a household by these cries ; 
and woe would betide it, if it had not this power of 
making its afflictions known. It is a sad thing to re- 
flect upon, that the animal, which has most to endure 
from man, is the one which has the least power of 
protesting by noise against any of his evil treatment. 

Ellesmere. There is one thing to be said in favour 
of the dumbness of animals. If they could talk, it would 
probably be only the talk of foolish men and women. 
As it is, we give animals credit for an amount of 
good sense, which credit they might easily lose if they 
had the talking faculties. 

Manleverer. Considering that you profess to be 
such a friend to animals, Ellesmere, I do not think it is 
very friendly on your part to conjecture that they would 
talk nonsense if they could talk at all. 

Elles77iere. Yes, it is wrong of me to calumniate 
them in this way. I'm sure I ought to be grateful to 
animals, for it is owing to my defence of an animal 
that I am tolerated here. Milverton and I were boys 
together at school, but I do not know that we had any 
particular affection ^for each other; and, to tell the 
truth, I am not sure that I am exactly the sort of 
person whom Milverton would have chosen as a friend. 
Underlying a thin upper surface of apparent toleration 
and readiness to hear what everyone would like to say 



THEIR MASTERS. 131 

on any subject, there is a certain real dislike to opposi- 
tion in a certain quarter ; and affection will not flow 
out to you from that quarter, if you continue reso- 
lutely to maintain that opposition. 

Milverton. Most unjust ! But go on with your 
story, for I do not know to what you are alluding. 

Ellesmere. Why, the fight we had with those three 
town boys. 

Milverton and I agreed to go out on a half-holiday 
with a leaping pole, to a place called Chalvey Ditch. 
1 was to leap, and he was to look on, for he was never 
much given to athletic pursuits. 

When we came to that renowned ditch, we found 
three i town-boys/ each of them bigger than either of 
us, who were passing their time in the delicate and 
humane amusement of drowning a cat by degrees. 
Poor pussy had a collar on, to which was tied a 
piece of string. She was occasionally thrown into the 
water and dragged out again, for joys of this kind are 
not to be consummated quickly. Educate these ruf- 
fians, Cranmer ! Educate them ; write the book you 
and Sir Arthur threatened the world with J 

Well, Milverton, as you might expect, began reason- 
ing with the boys ; talking to them like a Dutch uncle 
(I wonder what that expression means) about their 
cruelty. 

K 2 












132 ANIMALS AND 

Lady Ellesmere. Do get on with your story, John. 
Parentheses are odious. 

Elles7nere. The effect produced upon the 'town boys' 
by Master Milverton's discourse was infinitesimally 
small. What little effect it had, was, I think, to increase 
their enjoyment. We then tried what money would 
do, and offered the whole of our combined fortune 
(one shilling and threepence halfpenny, if I recollect 
rightly) for the purchase of the cat. This offer was 
persistently refused. If it had been half-a-crown, we 
were given to understand, it would have been accepted. 
Lady Ellesmere will forgive me for the parenthesis ; 
but I must observe that one and twopence halfpenny 
divided by three seems to be the precise sum 
which, in the boyish mind, would turn the balance 
from cruelty to avarice. Anyhow, it was not so on 
that occasion. 

Milverton looked expressively at me. That expres- 
sive look was fully equivalent to any one of the 
speeches which Homer's heroes make before com- 
mencing battle. He then uttered the formidable word 
Nunc, rushed at the boy nearest him, who went 
over into the ditch, which was pretty full of water. I 
hit the boy who had hold "of the cat as hard a blow as 
I could in the face, and kept ' pegging away/ to use a 
presidential expression, with all my might. He soon 



THEIR MASTERS. 133 

dropped the cat. and did not seem inclined for further 
battle. Both of us then attacked the third boy, who 
had hitherto been a passive spectator ; but he was a 
coward, and took to his heels at once. I clutched up 
the cat, Milverton the leaping pole, and off we went 
with our prize. After Milverton's antagonist had got 
out of the ditch, we were hotly pursued. The country 
round about is intersected with ditches, and the leap- 
ing pole was of great use to us. Home we came 
gloriously, and brought the cat to our Dame. It turned 
out to be the pet cat of a neighbouring Dame, who re- 
warded us with a bottle of currant wine and twelve 
twopenny gooseberry tarts. 

I have not indulged much in currant wine since, 
but gooseberry tarts have a wonderful attraction for 
me to this day ; and when I do but see a gooseberry 
tart, the glories of the past come back upon my soul, 
I scent battle from afar, and feel like one of Ossian's 
heroes. 

Milverton took to me amazingly ever afterwards, 
was always ready to give me two or three sentences 
for the weekly Latin theme ; and here I am, snugly 
ensconced in this house, owing my not altogether un- 
favourable reception chiefly, I believe, to my ready 
backing of my friend in this encounter with the town 
boys. I must own that the ditch was greatly in our 



134 ANIMALS AND 

favour, for Milverton was never good at fisticuff work, 
and we should have been ignominiously thrashed but 
for his having the bright thought of making his 
antagonist — not bite the dust of the plain — but imbibe 
the muddy waters of the Chalvey. 



THEIR MASTERS. 135 



CHAPTER VI. 

After the conversation given in the preceding 
Chapter, we all went out for a row upon the 
neighbouring lake, which Sir John Ellesmere, to 
the great annoyance of Mr. Milverton, would 
always call ' the pond/ although* it consists of nine 
acres of water, and was even put down in the 
-county maps as ' a lake.' 

While we were upon the lake, conversation 
was resumed. I could not well take note of all 
that was said, being employed at first as one of the 
rowers ; but when I was permitted to be a sitter, I 
succeeded in making some notes, the most im- 
portant of which were as follows : — 

Mauleverer. The last vessel I was in, was of a 
somewhat different description from this. A few 
weeks ago I went over one of our first-rate ironclads 
at Portsmouth. I had not been in any great vessel 
for many years ; indeed, my previous experience of 



136 ANIMALS AND 

warlike craft was that which I gained in going over 
the ' Duke of Wellington/ when she was first com- 
missioned. 

If you have not seen any of our more recent men- 
of-war, you can hardly imagine the extraordinary 
strides made in scientific inventions applicable to 
naval warfare. Everywhere throughout the vessel, 
even in the most trifling matters, there is amazing 
ingenuity shown. I felt almost suffocated with con- 
tempt for myself and my species, when I contemplated 
this ingenuity. The vast absurdity of mankind rose 
up before me in a more visible and trenchant manner 
than it had ever done before. 

Ellesmere. What an anti-climax ! I really thought 
that Mauleverer, after admiring something, was pro- 
ceeding, however painful the process might be to him, 
to admire somebody. 

Mauleverer. I thought of the squalid streets and 
miserable alleys in which so large a portion of our 
town population dwells. I thought of the mean hovels 
in which many of our peasantry abide. I thought — 
it may be a commonplace way of thinking — of how 
clever we are in slaughter, and how stupid in self- 
preservation, and in maintaining the real dignity of 
man by beautiful modes of living. My contempt was 
universal. It involved all Europe — the most civilized 
portion of the globe, as we fondly call it — in its com- 



THEIR MASTERS. 137 

prehensiveness ; and, finally, I thought of Schiller's 
grand saying, 'The world's history is the condemna- 
tion of the world.' * 

Milverton. I should fully sympathise with you if 
you would strike out the word 'contempt/ and use 
some such word as sorrow, instead. 

Sir Arthur. What horrifies me is, that certain pro- 
ceedings, which have taken place of late years, make 
our future prospects of peace so doubtful. I do not 
believe that a greater error in high statesmanship 
could well have been committed than by imposing 
huge pecuniary fines upon conquered nations. 

Cranmer. I can't agree with you. These fines are 
restraints. 

Sir Arthur. That, my dear Cranmer, is, I fear, 
but a shallow view of the case, and one which, to the 
best of my belief, history does not bear out. Nations 
are not prevented from going to war by poverty. 

Milverton. I cannot call those men great states- 
men who adopt such remedies for keeping peace. I 
picture to myself what the greatest minds who have 
given themselves to statesmanship would have said of 
such transactions. How foreign they would have been 
to the plans of a Bacon or a Machiavelli. 

Ellesmere. Yes ; the virtuous Machiavelli, whom 

* £)te 2Beltgcfd)id)te iff t>a$ SKeltgmdjt. 



138 ANIMALS AND 

Milverton so much admires, would have said, ' Slay as 
many of your enemies as you like, but do not im- 
poverish them. Slaughter is soon forgotten : pecu- 
niary mulcts are neither forgotten nor forgiven.' 

Milverton. It is very unfair to put such a saying 
into the mouth of Machiavelli ; but that he would 
have objected to pecuniary mulcts, I am sure. 

Ellesmere. Ignorant as I am both of Bacon and 
Machiavelli, I shall put the matter in a more homely 
way, but one that I deem will not be less convincing. 
Imagine a fight between two schoolboys. If the 
victorious schoolboy, after thrashing his antagonist, 
were to take away his little pocket-money and his 
knife, do you think those two boys would ever be 
friends again ? Whereas, the surest way to establish 
a firm friendship between two boys is, that they should 
have a good fair stand-up fight. I wish I had had a 
fight with Milverton when we were boys; we should 
be much more affectionate friends than we are now ! 

Sir Arthur. I think that Ellesmere's simile is 
excellent. 

Milverton. And I must say for Bacon and Ma- 
chiavelli, that their peculiarity is, that they always 
take the wisdom that lies at their feet, and they 
would not have despised even Ellesmere's boyish simile. 
The difference between these wise men and other men 
is just this, that they seize upon what is common and 



THEIR MASTERS. 139 

self-evident, and make it almost uncommon and most 
searching. Now I will give you a simile that occurs 
to me in reference to Mauleverer's ironclad. It is 
that an ironclad and a cathedral very much resemble 
one another. 

Ellesmere. That is an astounding simile. 

Milverton. You must look a little beyond the im- 
mediate objects, before you recognize the truth of it. 
Each of these wonderful productions is the outcome 
of an age which is mainly directed in its thoughts to 
the products in question. You could not have had 
those cathedrals, if almost the whole mind of the 
men of that time had not gone in the direction which 
compelled those cathedrals to be built. You could 
not have these ironclads, and all this wondrous skill 
devoted to slaughter, which characterises this age, 
and moves the contempt of Mauleverer to such a 
height, if self-defence had not become one of the 
most urgent, perhaps the most urgent, necessity for 
nations. 

Sir Arthur. And what becomes of Christianity ? 

Mauleverer. What, indeed ! 

Milverton. I wish to go back for a minute or two 
in our conversation. I want to drive thoroughly out of 
Ellesmere's head the notion that these great writers, 
of whom he is quite ready to speak disrespectfully, 
were merely subtle thinkers, or that their thoughts 



140 ANIMALS AND 

are, for the most part, far-fetched. I do not believe 
that mere subtlety in a writer has ever commanded 
the world's esteem. 

Sir Arthur, No ; when Bacon says ' reading 
maketh a full man ; conference a ready man ; and 
writing an exact man/ there is no particular subtlety 
in what he says, and you are ready to give assent to 
the saying the moment you have heard it. 

Milverton. I remember a passage in Machiavelli 
respecting which the same assertion, as it seems to 
me, may justly be made. He is discussing the dan- 
gers to a prince from conspiracies, and he says that 
the danger arising from private injuries is immensely 
increased if the prince is generally unpopular. There- 
fore, he says, let a prince take care to avoid this general 
unpopularity. If he succeeds in this, he will run 
much less risk from the effects of private injuries, 
whether they be such as have touched estate, life, or 
honour. The private injury remains the same ; but 
even if there should be the desire and the power to 
revenge it by means of conspiracy, the conspirators 
are restrained by that universal favour which they 
perceive attaches to the prince.* 

Sir Arthur. Yes : how far from subtle is this 

* Che quando pur ei fussero d' animo e di potenza da farlo, 
sono ritenuti da quella benevolenza universale, che veggono 
avere ad un principe. — Discorsi, lib. 3, cap. 4. 



THEIR MASTERS. 141 

remark. We must admit the truth of it on the most 
ordinary occasions in life. You will find that you are 
much more prone to resent any injury which has been 
inflicted upon you by an unpopular person. The 
general disfavour often seems to increase the injury, 
or, at any rate, there is not the restraint upon the 
injured man which he is sure to feel if he receives 
but little sympathy from others by reason of their 
general approval of the injurer. 

Milverton. I wish to carry the subject much 
further. The sayings of these great men are generally 
well-clothed in words ; but I wish to exalt the merit 
and force of sayings which have not this advantage. 

I think that some of the most fruitful, if not the 
wisest, things that have ever been said, are of this 
nature. They are not exactly commonplace things ; 
indeed, when first uttered, they may have been the 
product of severe thought ; but they are, for the most 
part, statements of facts, statements which cannot be 
denied, which do not strike you as very wonderful 
when you first hear them, but which grow in im- 
portance as you think over them, and as they are 
illustrated by the facts that daily come before you. 
They are not sharp sayings, which generally have 
some narrowness in them, but they are sayings of an 
immensely broad character. There is even a certain 
bluntness about them. 



142 ANIMALS AND 

Ellesmere. This is all very fine, I daresay ; but I 
have not the most dim notion of what the man 
means. 

Milverton, I must take an instance. It has been 
said that one of the best means to ensure content- 
ment, is to take care that you do not set your heart 
upon something which must, of necessity, be given 
you by other people. You will doubtless find scores 
of writers, from Epictetus downwards, who have 
uttered this saying in various forms of language. 

I must proceed with further illustration, for I fear 
that there is still some haziness about my meaning. 
Suppose a man, for example, has made the main 
pleasure of his life to consist in applause. He is 
completely at the mercy of his fellow men. He may 
do something ever so well; but, ' contrive' them (I will 
explain that word afterwards), they will not clap their 
hands. And as this applause of other people is what 
he has set his heart upon, and not the doing of some- 
thing to his own satisfaction, he is entirely dependent 
upon the will, or perhaps the wilfulness, of his fellow 
men. 

I do not think that you can exaggerate the fruitful- 
ness of this thought, only it requires to be much dwelt 
upon, in order to bring out its full merit. Of course, 
it has nothing to do with bread-winning pursuits. If 
you are to get your living by making knives or pins, 






THEIR MASTERS. 143 

or giving legal opinions, you have to produce knives, 
pins, and legal opinions, which shall satisfy your fellow 
creatures, and ensure a good sale for these articles. 
But if, over and above this necessary repute, you 
hunger for praise, you have certainly given an addi- 
tional hold upon yourself to your fellow creatures, 
which, as I said before, places you entirely at their 
mercy. 

Take authorship, or statesmanship, or any of the 
more refined modes of labour, and this same rule 
applies. That man has put himself so far into the 
power of other people, who beyond caring for doing 
his work to the best of his power, looks to popular 
applause for his reward. 

You will find that a number of wise and' witty say- 
ings are all contained in, and indeed anticipated by, 
this one thought, illustrating the danger of making 
your contentment depend upon what others alone can 
give. 

Sir Arthtir. 

'Tis not in mortals to command success, 

But we'll do more, Sempronius, we'll deserve it. 

— only one ought to substitute the word ' applause ? 

for ' success.' 

Milverton. Yes, Sir Arthur; but the number of 

such sayings anticipated by this original maxim is 

legion. It chiefly applies to that which is, if I may 



i44 ANIMALS AND 

so express it, extra to the ordinary duties and works 
of life — to that which gives them their especial savour 
to the man who does them. If this savour mainly 
depends upon recognition, and praiseful recognition, 
he is to that extent a slave. We ought to be able to 
say, in Churchill's admirable words — 

'Tis not the babbling of an idle world, 
Where praise and censure are at random hurled, 
That can the meanest of my thoughts control, 
Or shake one settled purpose of my soul. 

Sir Arthur, I am thinking of Gibbon. He was a 
man who did not surrender his contentment into other 
men's keeping. Early in life he felt that he was a 
writer whose gifts by nature could best be made use of 
by writing a history. He looked about for a subject 
which would interest, or ought to interest, the world. 
As I dare say you know, he did not choose 'The 
Decline and Fall ' at first ; but when he had chosen 
it, he abided by it ; and I feel confident that his con- 
tentment depended upon working out his own purpose 
— that he was thenceforth no man's slave, that he was 
dependent upon no man as regards censure or applause. 

Ellesmere. I now want to know why Milverton used 
that strange word ' contrive ' so inappropriately, 
suppose there is some pedantic reason for it. 

Milverton, I will justify my use of the word. 
There was a senior Fellow, holding high office in our 



THEIR MASTERS. 145 

college — one of the best of men. He would tutorise 
a poor Sizar without receiving any payment, if he saw 
any worth in the young man. He was of a warm 
temper, and very much given to the love of discipline 
and decorum. His notions of decorum were some- 
times outraged by us, as, for instance, in our attend- 
ance at morning chapel. He would come into my 
room, or that of some man he knew, and lecture us 
somewhat after the following fashion : — ' I don't say 
that you are late for chapel, but you don't take your 
proper places at once ; you hang about the doors, 
loiter, and gossip ; and, con-con-con-contrive you, you 
keep the Master and Senior Fellows waiting in the 
ante-chapel.' The good man longed to say the word 
' confound,' but thought it would be indecorous ; and 
the nearest substitute which occurred to him, when he 
was angry, was ' contrive.' I have ever since adopted 
the word as a delicate and decorous substitute for 
what might otherwise be considered as swearing. 

Ellesmere. I should have thought that a calm- 
minded philosophic man would never even have 
thought of using the word ' confound.' For my part I 
always say something much stronger or much feebler. 
It is not a favourite word of mine. 

But let that pass. I want to ask a pregnant and 
personal question. When you write anything, Mil- 
verton, what are your feelings anent criticism, par- 

L 



i 4 6 ANIMALS AND 

ticularly as regards hostile criticism? To put it 
plainly : if there is a man in the world who desires 
to persuade and influence other people, you are the 
man ! Consequently you have placed your content- 
ment*in other people's keeping, and you are, to use 
your own polite expression, c a slave.' 

Milverto?i. Not at all. You force me to speak 
egotistically ; but I can give a perfect answer to your 
question. 

When I write anything, it is with a purpose. I own 
that I hate to have my purpose thwarted. If a critic, 
commenting upon what I write, agrees with me, I 
honestly admit I am pleased. He has furthered my 
purpose. 

Et sapit, et mecum facit, et Jove judicat aequo. 
I am very much obliged to him, and am disposed to 
like him. 

If he opposes me, and there is anything good and 
serviceable in what he says, I take note of it for 
future occasion. If he is only objectative and Elles- 
merian, I say to myself, ' Contrive the fellow.' I 
regret he is not with me ; indeed, if you like to put it 
so strongly, I am vexed at this hindrance to my 
purpose. But I have not placed my contentment in 
the measure of applause one may get for anything. 

Do any of you understand the system of i double 
entry ? ' 



THEIR MASTERS, 147 

Cranmer. I do. 

Ellesmere. The rest of us, by our silence, show 
that we do know it, but that we are not, like Cranmer, 
anxious to parade our knowledge of it. 

Milverton. It is but too evident that Ellesmere 
knows nothing at all about it. I will explain. Cor- 
rect me, Cranmer, if I do not do so rightly. 

You must suppose yourself to be a merchant, and 
to be able, by this excellent system of double entry, 
to appreciate, if not to ascertain, at any moment, 
the result of every venture separately. The good 
ship e Mary Ann ? has gone to Santander with a 
cargo suitable for the Spanish market. The good 
ship is treated in the merchant's books as a human 
being would be. She has her ( debit ' and her ' credit ;' 
and this mode of keeping accounts shows whether 
the venture on the ' Mary Ann' has been successful 
or unsuccessful. 

Now let a man who works in politics, in literature, 
or in art, deal with his Bill, or his book, or his picture 
or statue, as the merchant does with the good ship 
1 Mary Ann.' Let him put down everything that is 
to its debit or its credit ; but at the same time take 
care to keep it as a separate transaction, in which 
the whole of his fortune is. not involved. He will 
find this mode of looking at his liabilities and his ven- 
tures to be most useful and comforting. The good 

l 2 



148 ANIMALS AND 

ship does not always come to port, or she does 
not always find a ready market for her cargo, how- 
ever well chosen. Other people's conduct, or their 
prejudices, just or unjust, may interfere with suc- 
cess; but if he has adopted the practice of keep- 
ing the accounts of this transaction separately, he 
knows where he is in the venture, and seldom 
allows himself to consider it, however deplorable 
the result, as a wreck of his fortunes. 

In political action there is more comfort to be 
had from that astute thinker, De Quincey, than 
from almost any other man. He looked upon the 
transactions in politics as the resultants of certain 
forces. A minister bringing in a Bill, should- do 
the same. The forces may be such as neither 
wit nor wisdom can overcome. On the other hand, 
they may be such as to drive on his Bill to a suc- 
cessful issue. In no case should he suffer himself to 
be utterly disheartened by hostile criticism, if he 
has done his best to promote his object. The same 
with the sculptor, the painter, or the author. He 
must not fix his vanity upon the thing attempted, 
only his intention and his purposefulness (if I may 
coin such a word) ; and you will find that most 
people will bear the thwarting of their intentions and 
their purposes better than the lowering of their 
vanity and their self-loye. 



THEIR MASTERS. [49 

Ellesmere. What an admirable consoler Milverton 
would make for unsuccessful people. 

Your mercantile mode of putting the thing is very 
well in its way, but I could say something much more 
tfr the point. There is a little anecdote which I 
have heard before in this company, but I shall refresh 
your memories by telling it again. 

There was a certain great man, the head of a 
house, with numerous scions belonging to it. He 
was a very wise old man. I used to notice, when I 
was a boy, that he was one of the few persons 
whom the late Duke of Wellington would take a 
walk with. You will naturally think, how should I 
know he was a wise man ? 

Lady Ellesmere, Do get on with your story, John. 

Ellesmere. What an impatient little woman you 
are ! I wonder from whom you learnt the habit of 
impatience. 

I was employed in a great case. My junior 
begged me to read this man's evidence, which had 
been given before a Parliamentary Committee, as 
it bore upon the case. The evidence was masterly. 
In general, we lawyers are not only great in cram- 
ming for a case (we should be the boys for com- 
petitive examinations), but we are also equally great 
in discumbering our minds of what we have crammed 
up for the occasion. But this man's evidence re- 
mains to this day in my mind. 



150 ANIMALS AND 

Well, there came a general election, and several of 
the scions of that house lost their elections. One, 
however, not the wisest of the family, succeeded. 
We will call him Leonard. ' How is it/ said one 
of the chiefs of the party to this old man, 'that 
John, and Robert, and Thomas, failed, but Leonard 
succeeded ? ' ' Oh ! his nonsense suited their non- 
sense/ was the apt reply. And how much of human 
life it explains. You don't win people by talking 
their sense to them, but by talking their nonsense 
to them, which they are fondest of. And then, if 
you can talk the right nonsense to the right people, 
and at the right time, you must succeed. Some- 
times one is aghast with astonishment on reading a 
speech of vast and continuous folly, which one finds 
met with great applause. The truth is, it does not 
happen to be one's own nonsense, but it is theirs — 
the people whom the orator is addressing. 

Cranmer. This is all very witty and very sa- 
tirical, I daresay, but what consolation there is in it, 
I do not exactly perceive. 

Ellesmere. Why, don't you see that the unsuc- 
cessful man can always comfort himself by thinking 
that his sense did not suit c their nonsense ' ? 
may be sure that there are thousands of people who 
console themselves, and sometimes justly, by saying 
to themselves that they are before their age, or, at 



THEIR MASTERS. 151 

least, that they are out of joint with their age. I 
have scarcely a doubt that Mauleverer, with whom 
we hardly ever agree, retains his placidity while 
amongst us, by thinking that his nonsense does not 
suit our nonsense, or, as he would disrespectfully put 
it, that his sense is prematurely confided to us. 
Just the same thing happens in art and in literature 
as in talkee-talkee. Only the word i taste ' must be 
substituted for ' sense.' 

While we were in the boat, evening came on, 
and with it one of those grand sunsets which 
are not seen many times in a man's life, and 
which remain strongly impressed u'pon his me- 
mory, although he have but little power of de- 
scribing them to other persons. 

This was no mean sunset occupying only the 
western sky, but it overspread the whole range 
of the heavens. A new world seemed to be de- 
veloped in the skies, a world wherein there were 
vast flame-coloured mountains, piled up, one over 
the other, with wide still seas of that peculiar yellow- 
green colour, so rarely to be seen, and on which 
large dark islands seem to float. Every shade of 
colour and every kind of form were there. Dimly 
in the east a soft purple haze was visible, while in 



152 ANIMALS AND 

the west there was a livid redness. The full 
moon, as she slowly rose from the horizon, gathered 
to herself all that was softest and most beautiful 
in the colouring of the heavens, and formed the 
most exquisite contrast to her fierce brother, the 
sun, who left the world in solemn anger. 

Silence came not only upon the ' Friends," 
but upon all animated creatures near us. No- 
thing was heard but a soft rippling sound among 
the reeds, where, at the moment, we had stayed 
the boat, and the occasional fall of drops of water 
from the suspended oars. 

Then, almost suddenly, the resplendent colouring 
grew dim, and all that remained in the western 
heavens were dark masses of cloud, and in the 
east the now brightly- shining moon. 

The conversation was resumed, but the sunset 
had produced its effect ; Sir John Ellesmere re- 
mained silent. There was an occasional wail in 
words from Mauleverer, which was disregarded, 
and the talk was left to Sir Arthur and Mr. 
Milverton. I cannot distinguish the parts they 
severally took in it, but the result was something 
of this kind : 

They spoke of the Cosmos of Humboldt ; of 



THEIR MASTERS. 153 

the whole order of nature ; of its unity ; of what it 
might teach us if we could but ascertain its few 
great laws, and abide by them. They said how 
scraps of morality and shreds of doctrine would 
be absorbed and rendered needless, if we could 
but once appreciate the meaning, the order, and 
the beauty of the universe, as a whole. They 
reverted to the subject we had been so much 
considering, namely, the treatment of animals, 
and said how little occasion there would be for 
maxims and rules and laws about it, if only we 
had learnt the real relationship that existed 
amongst all animated beings. 

They spoke of the views of a great German 
writer, who had said that what is highest and 
noblest in man, conceals itself, and is without 
use for active life (as the highest mountains bear 
no herbage), and out of the chain of beautiful 
thoughts only some links can be detached as 
actions .* 

But they contended that even this was but a 

* £)a$ vg>6d)fte unb (Sbelfte tm SDtenfcfyen oerbirgt fid) unb 
tft ofyne 9tu£en fur tie tfy&tige SBelt (ttrie tie f)6d)jren S3erge 
feme ©eroad)fe rtagen) unb aug ber Rett? fdjoner ©ebanlen 
fonnen fid) nur einige ©tieber al$ Sfyaten abiofen.— - Jean Paul 
Richter, Hesperus. 



154 ANIMALS AND 

contracted view, or at least one that required fur- 
ther development; for, that these high moods of 
thought, which, above all things, the appreciation 
of nature in its most beautiful forms tended to 
produce, would render the application of mere 
rules perfectly unnecessary, as the spirit in 
which men would act, would overcome and be 
beyond all written rules and regulations. 

So far my mind went with them, but could 
not quite follow them, when they went into what 
appeared to me to be wild hopes and aspirations 
for the future ; imagining a time when all nature 
would be better understood, and men be drawn 
more near to Nature's God ; when most of the 
tribulations arising from wars and contentions, 
and the clashing jealousies of sects and classes 
amongst mankind, would be impossible by reason 
of their then transparent folly. I could not par- 
take of this hopefulness, which belongs, I sup- 
pose, to the poetic temperament. Would that 
prophetic power did but accompany poetical 
temperament ! 

The stars came out vividly in those parts of 
the heavens where the clouds were not massed 
together. Mauleverer, who has studied astro- 



THEIR MASTERS. 155 

nomy, reminded us of some of the great dis- 
coveries connected with that science, oppressing 
us rather with descriptions of the magnitude of 
the universe, and of our own smallness and 
contemptibility. This kind of discourse was, no 
doubt, very gratifying to him, but did not tend 
to impart cheerfulness to the rest of us. And 
then we rowed to the landing-place, and walked 
up in silence to the house. 



156 ANIMALS AND 



CHAPTER VII. 

It was rather surprising to me that our friends 
had hitherto, with the exception of the conversa- 
tion in the boat on the lake, kept even so closely 
as they had to the subject which Mr. Milverton put 
before them at the beginning of the holidays. I 
knew that it was pain and grief to Sir John to 
keep so closely to any subject. We had, however, 
another morning devoted to it, and the conversa- 
tion chiefly turned upon Eastern thought and 
action as regards animals. Sir William Jones, 
Professor Max Miiller, Professor Wilson, and 
other great authorities in Eastern lore, were, to- 
gether with the Koran, very largely quoted ; but 
I really think we have had so much of learned 
quotation brought forward, that my readers will 
not care to have this conversation reported to 
them verbatim. The only quotations I shall give 



THEIR MASTERS. 157 

are those which Sir Arthur made from the Koran 
and its notes, and which were the following : — 

There is no kind of beast on earth, nor fowl which 
flieth with its wings, but the same is a people like unto you ; 
we have not omitted anything in the Book of our decrees : 
then unto their Lords shall they return. 

Whereupon Sale, the translator, in a note applying 
to this passage, says : — 

For, according to the Mohammedan belief, the irrational 
animals will also be restored to life at the resurrecti on, that 
they may be brought to judgment, and have vengeance 
taken on them for the injuries they did one another while 
in this world. 

Sir John Ellesmere did not fail to remark that 
it does not seem to have occurred to the trans- 
lator that any vengeance was to be taken for the 
injuries which the other animals had received from 
the hands of man. 

Our own Scriptures were quoted, and Mr. 
Milverton insisted much upon the passage : — 

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not 
one of them is forgotten before God ? 

Sir John Ellesmere then made an attack on 
Mr. Milverton, saying that he had not given 
enough attention to providing practical remedies 
for the evils he had enumerated as regards the 



158 ANIMALS AND 

treatment of animals. I was sorry to hear that 
Mr. Cranmer joined in this attack. Mr. Milverton, 
in reply, said something of this kind : — ' Hundreds 
of thousands of transactions will take place in 
our metropolis to-day in which the treatment of 
animals by men is concerned ; and do you think 
that I or anyone else can lay down rules by 
which these transactions can be regulated ? If 
we could lay down such rules, would they be 
obeyed? Our object should be to get a better 
spirit introduced into the treatment of animals. 
That is the only thing which will really have an 
abiding effect 

' It is very ungrateful of you, Cranmer, joining 
with Ellesmere on this occasion ; for I admit, 
and I think admitted at the time, that your 
suggestion that a book should be written for 
schools, which should inculcate humanity to ani- 
mals, was a most excellent one. I even said 
that you and Sir Arthur might write it : though 
I think it had better be entrusted to a Huxley, 
a Wallace, a Frank Buckland, a Hooker, a Wood; 
or to Bates, who wrote that book upon the 
Amazons, or some man of that kind, practised in 
the observation of nature. 



THEIR MASTERS. 159 

• 

i You ask for practical remedies, for things to do. 
Well, I say, follow the example of Lady Burdett 
Coutts, who has given prizes for the encouragement 
of ^humanity to animals. I do not mean that you 
are to do precisely the same thing— to follow ex- 
actly in her steps ; but read up the subject (a great 
deal of evidence has been given upon it before 
Committees of the House of Commons), and you 
will soon find out something to do. Meanwhile, 
interest yourself in the doings of that excellent 
"Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals," 
and of other societies that have like objects in view. 

' You see that improvement in the treatment of 
animals depends upon many small things which it 
would be almost impossible to enumerate, and the 
value of which would only be appreciated by 
those who are conversant with the particular 
branch of the subject to which these small reme- 
dies refer. I will give you an instance. You 
would hardly believe, unless you had heard the 
evidence of experts, how much can be done to 
improve the transit of animals by sea by such 
regulations as the following, the adoption of which 
is recommended by the Transit of Animals Com- 
mittee. "The floors of each pen should be 



160 ANIMALS AND 

provided with battens or other footholds; and 
ashes, sand, sawdust, or other suitable substance 
should be so strewed on the floors of the pens, 
and on the decks and gangways, as to prevent the 
animals from slipping." A whole host of evils 
could be avoided by these simple regulations.' 

I have now given some notion of the serious 
part of the conversation. There was only one 
part of it that may be called amusing. Sir 
Arthur, who is quite as zealous an advocate for 
the good treatment of animals as my chief is, 
gave us an anecdote which was very characteristic. 
When he was in office he had to attend a function 
out of town, at which one of our most distin- 
guished statesmen was also to be present. They 
were both great lovers of animals, and each had 
imparted to the other his determination never to 
urge the driver of a hired horse to go faster 
than the driver chose to go. Unfortunately, on 
this occasion, . they were detained by urgent 
business in Downing Street, and started toge- 
ther very late in the same cab to the station. 
In the minds of both of them there was a terrible 
fear that they might be too late, and, if so, that 



THEIR MASTERS. 161 

they would keep great personages waiting, 
would incur much blame, and would, perhaps, 
cause a breaking down of the function altogether. 
After they had started, they pretended to talk 
with interest of things which were really indif- 
ferent to them ; for the thought which galled 
both of them was whether they should be late. 
Furtively they looked at their watches at almost 
every other minute. At length they could not 
keep up their sham talk any longer, and there 
was dead silence. After this had lasted about 
seven minutes, one of them had the boldness to 
state the question which was in both their minds. 
The cab- driver meanwhile was taking it very 
coolly. They imparted to each other their hopes 
and fears. The best that could happen to them 
if they should be late, was, that they would be 
able to get a special train. Even that might 
not be feasible. Should they keep to their prin- 
ciple of action, or should they break it % They 
resolved to keep to it. The event was not disas- 
trous. They were just in time, with not a second 
to spare, and they had the satisfaction of having 
abided by their principle. As they discussed the 
matter with one another, they had said, 'This 

M 



1 62 ANIMALS AND 

appears very important to us, that we should be 
in time : with thousands of other people the same 
argument might hold good. How can we ever 
have the face to urge upon them that they should 
adopt the principle, which we break through 
when a certain amount of pressure is brought to 
bear upon us?' Sir Arthur finally said, i That he 
did not know that in the whole course of his life 
he had undergone so severe a temptation to 
do anything which, upon general grounds, he 
thought to be wrong.' We praised him very 
much, but he would not accept our praise, saying, 
that if there had been the slightest weakness in 
his companion, he might have given way too, and 
would have insisted upon its being a justifiable 
exception. The malicious Ellesmere ventured to 
suppose that if each of these distinguished persons 
had been alone he would not have hesitated to 
urge the cabman to urge his horse. But this 
mean suggestion was universally scouted, and Sir 
Arthur became a little angry at its having been 
made. 

Sir John Ellesmere then, somewhat to our as- 
tonishment, began to dilate upon the pleasures of 
companionship, and to say what a grand thing it 



THEIR MASTERS, 163 

is to be able to discuss any subject with frequent 
interruptions, such as could not be allowed when 
listening to a sermon or a speech ; and then he 
urged Mr. Milverton to write an essay on the joys 
of high companionship, in the course of reading 
which he, Sir John, was to be permitted to in- 
terrupt at least four times. The other guests 
seconded Sir John's request. Mr. Milverton con- 
sented, and, when he had prepared his essay, read 
it one morning when we were all assembled in 
the study. 



ON THE JOYS OF HIGH COMPANIONSHIP. 

I wish, my good friends, that you had not given 
me so fine a title for this essay. I shall be obliged 
to consider many forms of companionship which 
cannot be described by so grand an epithet as 
1 high.' 

The joys, not merely of high companionship, 
but of any companionship that is tolerably pleasant, 
are so great, that a man with whom all other things 
go ill, cannot be classed as an unhappy man, if he 
has throughout his life much of this pleasant com- 
panionship. 



m 2 



1 64 ANIMALS AND 

The desire for companionship is absolutely uni- 
versal. Even misanthropy is but the desire for 
companionship, turned sour. This desire extends 
throughout creation. It is very noticeable in domes- 
tic animals ; and could we fathom the causes of 
their sociability, we should probably have arrived at 
a solution of several important questions relating to 
them and to ourselves. 

( The most fascinating people in the world have, I 
believe, been simply good companions. Shake- 
speare, as he knew most things, Knew this, and has 
shown that he knew it, in what he has indicated to 
us of the loves of Brutus and Portia, of Antony 
and Cleopatra, and of Rosalind and Orlando. We 
now know that that ' brown Egyptian beauty,' 
of whom Tennyson says, in his ' Dream of Fair 
Women ' — 

When she made pause I knew not for delight ; 

Because with sudden motion from the ground 
She raised her piercing orbs, and filled with light 

The interval of sound. 

was no beauty at all, and indeed by many people 
would have been considered plain ; but no doubt 
she was an exquisite companion. The same may 
be said of many of the most fascinating people, 



THEIR MASTERS. 165 

men and women, of our own country, and of our 
own time/ However this may be, I think it must 
be admitted that one of the main objects of life is 
good companionship. "What/' says Emerson, "is 
the end of all this apparatus of living — what but to 
get a number of persons who shall be happy in 
each other's society, and be seated at the same 
table ? " 

\Ellesmere. I shall take leave to make a remark 
upon that afterwards.] 

The first thing for companionship is, that there 
should be a good relation between the persons who 
are to become good companions to each other. It 
is not well to use a foreign phrase if it can be 
avoided, but there are foreign phrases which are 
supremely significant, and utterly untranslatable. 
I therefore say that those people I have spoken of 
should be en rapport with one another. This 
rapport may have its existence in various ways. 
The relationship of mother and son, of father 
and daughter, will give it ; the love that some 
people have for children will give it with children ; 
similar bringing up at school or at college may give 
it ; similarity of present pursuits may give it. But 
before all and above all, that incomprehensible, 



I 66 ANIMALS AND 

unfathomable thing called personal liking— that 
which you feel (or the contrary of which you feel), 
frequently at first sight — will be sure to give it. We 
use the phrase ' falling in love : ' we might perhaps 
use the phrase 'foiling in liking ' to describe a 
similar unavoidable precipitancy. 

The cat that purrs at your approach establishes 
herself en rapport with you ; and there is a human 
purring, sometimes quite inaudible to alien ears, 
which also does not foil to establish the requisite 
relation. 

There may, however, be very good and sound 
companionship without friendship, as there may be 
friendship of a most deep and sincere kind with but 
a sorry accompaniment in the way of companionship. 
The same may be said of lower degrees of regard 
than that which is expressed by friendship; and 
you may have but little respect or liking for one to 
whom you cannot deny the merit of being a good 
companion. There is an affinity between friendship 
and companionship, as there is between the metal 
that is moulded into a medal and that which is 
turned into a current coin ; but the uses of the two 
things are very different. In cases where there is 
this good companionship, without a tie either of 



THEIR MASTERS. 167 

affection or regard, there is always some other tie 
to be found, which may be included under the head 
of necessary social intercourse, and serves to form 
the basis of the companionship. 

The beginning once made, the basis once laid for 
this companionship, what are the qualities which 
fend to make it continuously pleasant ? 

The first thing is confidence. Now, in using the 
word confidence, it is not meant to imply that there 
is an absolute necessity for much confidingness in 
small things. Wilhelm Von Humboldt has ex- 
pressed an opinion which is worth noting in 
reference to this subject. ' Friendship and love/ 
he says, l require the deepest and most genuine 
confidence, but lofty souls do not require the 
trivial confidences of familiarity.'* 

The kind of confidence that Humboldt means, 
and which is required for companionship as well 
as for friendship and love, puts aside all querul- 
ous questions as to whether the companions like 
one another as much to-day as they did yesterday. 

* greunbfcfyaft unb £tebe bebiirfen beS SSertrauenS/ beS 
ttefften unb eigeniltdjftett/ abet bet grog arttgen (Seeten me tie 
£$ertraultd)feuen. Dr. Ramage's Beautiful Thoughts from 
German Authors. Liverpool, 1868. 



1 68 ANIMALS AND 

Steadfastness is to be assumed. And, also a cer- 
tain unchangeableness. ' He is a wonderfully 
agreeable person/ said a neighbour of one of the 
best talkers of the day ; ' but I have to renew 
my acquaintance with him every morning.' That 
good talker cannot be held to be a good com- 
panion in a high sense of the word. Again, this 
steadfastness makes allowance for all variations of 
humour, temperament, and fortune. It prevents 
one companion from attributing any change that 
there may be in the other, of manner, of bearing, 
or of vivacity, to a change in the real relation 
between the companions. He does not make any 
of these things personal towards himself. Silence 
is not supposed to be offence. Hence there is no 
occasion to make talk, a thing which is fatal to 
companionship. One reason why some of us en- 
joy so much the society of animals, is because we 
need not talk to them if we do not like. And, 
indeed, with a thoroughly good human companion, 
you ought to be able to feel as if you were quite 
alone. 

The hindrances to sound and pleasant com- 
panionship are far more of a moral than of an 
intellectual kind. Diversity of tastes may be no 



THEIR MASTERS. 169 

hindrance, and, on the other hand, they may be 
the greatest hindrance to good companionship. I 
think, however, it may be observed that those 
tastes only are fatal which have their origin in what 
is moral or emotional, and not in what is intellectual. 
For instance, there shall be two persons, excellently 
fitted for companionship ; but very different, in- 
tellectually speaking, in their tastes. One shall be 
a great lover of art, and everything that is inartistic 
is very repulsive to him. He will comment upon 
what offends his taste in works of art, in literature, 
in all the apparatus of living. This will not hinder 
even the perfection of companionship, although 
the other is a plain blunt person, somewhat inclined 
to think this frequent reference to art rather tedious. 
If, however, he has a taste for ridicule, and indulges 
it in commenting sarcastically upon that which is a 
very deep part of his friend's nature, those two 
friends will soon cease to be good companions 
to one another. There can be no healthy com- 
panionship when there is a perpetual expectation 
of attack. 

\Ellesmere. Oh !] 

Unless, indeed, it is thoroughly understood that 
the attacks are purely playful, and that when one 



iyo ANIMALS AND 

friend differs from the other, and manifests this 
difference by anything like satire, there is at the 
same time a confidence in the mind of the person 
attacked, that his friend really respects his views, 
and would wish to adopt them if he could. 

\_Elles7nere. Oh ! indeed.] 

Difference of temperament is no hindrance what- 
ever to companionship. Indeed, the world has 
generally recognized that fact. We all know that 
the ardent and the timid, the hopeful and the 
despondent, the eager and the apathetic, get on 
very well together. What may not always have 
been as clearly perceived is, that there are certain 
diversities of nature, chiefly relating to habits, 
which produce, not agreeable contrasts, but down- 
right fatal discords. And, in such cases, companion- 
ship of a high kind is hopeless. 

Benefits neither make nor hinder true companion- 
ship. I may also observe that relationship ought to 
ensure good companionship, because, however un- 
pleasant it may be to relations to be told that they 
are wont to resemble one another very much, they 
often do so resemble one another. And, frequently, 
this resemblance exists in those very qualities that 



THEIR MASTERS. 171 

tend to ensure good companionship. Why, however, 
relatives often fail in becoming pleasant companions 
to one another is, from a cause which also destroys 
so much love and so much friendship in the world. 
It is an unreasonable expectation of liking, love, or 
sympathy, grounded merely upon some external 
connection, if it may be so called, of the one person 
to the other. You must not expect that people will 
change their natures in their dealings with you, 
merely because they are your friends, or your 
relatives, or your lovers. They are thus brought 
into relation with you, but not necessarily en 
rapport. And, in fact, you must take more pains 
with them than with other people to create this 
rapport, and, if possible, to satisfy the unreason of 
their expectations. 

One might deal with companionship under several 
heads — moral, intellectual, even physical. But 
the truth is that it is a thing ' compounded of 
so many simples,' that it would not be judicious, 
and certainly would be pedantic, to consider the 
subject after the fashion of the schoolmen in a 
distributive manner. I have endeavoured to show 
that good companionship depends upon many 
things which may be called of a minor kind, and 



172 ANIMALS AND 

have not disdained to attribute great weight to 
such a fanciful thing as personal liking. 

Now let us suppose that the principal requisites 
for companionship have been attained; first, the 
basis for it created by personal liking, early asso- 
ciation, similarity of pursuits, and the like ; 
secondly, the means of continuing it, such as this 
confidence that has been spoken of, the absence of 
contravening tastes, the absence of unreasonable 
expectation, and the like. Now, for what remain 
to be considered as the essential requisites for high 
companionship, we must enter into what is almost 
purely intellectual. For this high companionship 
there must be an interest in many things, at least 
on one side, and on the other a great power of 
receptivity. It is almost impossible to exaggerate 
the needfulness of these elements. Look at results. 
Consider the nature of those men and women whom 
you have found, if I may use the phrase, to be splen- 
did companions. It is not exactly their knowledge 
that has made them so ; it is their almost universal 
interest in everything that comes before them. 
This quality will make even ignorant people ex- 
tremely good companions to the most instructed 
persons. It is not, however, the relation of tutor 



THEIR MASTERS. 173 

to pupil that is contemplated here. That is certainly 
not the highest form of companionship. The kind 
of ignorant person that I mean, if he or she should 
be one of the companions, is to be intensely receptive 
and appreciative, and his or her remarks are very 
dear and very pleasant to the most instructed 
person. Is not the most valuable part of all know- 
ledge very explicable, and do you not find that you 
can make your best thoughts intelligible, if you 
have any clearness of expression, to persons not 
exactly of your own order, if you will only take the 
pains to do so ? 

\Ellesmere. I never can make Cranmer understand 
my best points.] 

The most consummate companions, intellectually 
speaking, are those who do not talk much about 
the past. The present and the future are their 
main subjects. This was to be observed in the 
late Lord Palmerston. In addition to this quality 
for a good companion, he was a man who had the 
most intense interest in every branch of human 
effort. The fulness of vitality that was in him, 
even when he was in his 79th year, made him care 
for what was present, and what was to come, in all 



174 ANIMALS AND 

affairs of human interest, and especially in dis 
coveries and inventions. 

What constitutes a bore? Three qualifications 
are requisite to make a perfect bore. He must 
prefer hearing himself talk, to the pleasure of 
eliciting good conversation. The limitation of his 
interest in human affairs is very restricted ; therefore 
he repeats himself largely ; and, as you will observe, 
he is very fond of talking of the past, and of the 
past in the strain of ^Eneas, often introducing the 
sentiment, if not the actual words, quorum pars 
magna fut. 

The reason why great literary men and great 
statesmen are such interesting companions, is, not 
only that they have a very wide range of subjects, 
but that they are generally very anxious to persuade 
their companions of something, to bring them 
round to their way of thinking ; and their earnestness 
is contagious, and creates earnestness, and therefore 
pleasure, in the soul of the hearer. And in general, 
these men are delighted with any companion who 
is appreciative and receptive, whatever his other 
gifts or failings may be. 

Lastly, it is to be observed, as a general rule, that 
almost every very great man is an adept in com- 



THEIR MASTERS. 175 

panionship, and is a companion to almost every- 
body with whom he enters into social intercourse. 
What a memorable description that is of Burke's 
excellence in that aspect — that if you had met .*. 

him, taking shelter under an archway, you would 
have found out that you were in the company of a 
great man ! You would, however, not only have 
found out that ; but you would have discovered 
that you had met with a good companion — with 
one whose society you would long for, as it would 
fulfil all the conditions for evoking and maintaining 
the rare felicity of high companionship. 



176 ANIMALS AND 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MlLVERTON. I think I heard you interrupt once or 
twice, Ellesmere. You can now make your objec- 
tions. 

Ellesmere. There was one part of your essay, 

Milverton, that was weak — decidedly weak. You 

were dilating upon a part of the subject which you 

do not understand. It was where you spoke of bores. 

I maintain that no man deserves the title of a bore, 

who does not deal largely, I may say offensively, in 

details. A bore over-explains, over-illustrates, molests 

one with needless dates, informs one of Smith, of whom 

he is going to tell a good story, that he is first-cousin 

to Jones of the Audit Office, and thinks you must have 

met him at Robinson's, who married into Brown's 

family — not the Highgate Browns, but the Browns 

who have that nice place at Hackney, with green gates, 

and a porter's lodge built after a Chinese pattern. At 

last you hardly know where you are ; and there is a 

feeling of being suffocated by a profusion of facts, every 



THEIR MASTERS. 177 

one of which might, judiciously, be omitted. ' Le secret 
d'etre ennuyeux c'est de tout dire.' 

Why it is that I say you do not understand the sub- 
ject is, that all you official fellows are too fond ot need- 
less facts, and are over-tolerant of a redundancy of 
details. 

Milverton. I bow to your greater experience of 
bores, Ellesmere. 

Ellesmere. Again, when you quoted Emerson (not 
quite accurately, if I remember the passage rightly), I 
meant to say that it is all very well for him, in his 
pleasant little Concord, or his all-accomplished Bos- 
ton,* to make so much of the joys of society ; but 
anything more uncompanionable than the society of 
London cannot well be imagined. 

In these elaborate dinners, and these reunions, 
evening assemblies, or whatever you call them, plea- 
sant companionship is the last thing thought of, or 
aimed at. In fact, if the metropolis is to go on in- 
creasing in size, and society is to be conducted as it is 
at present, new arrangements will have to be made for 
friendship and companionship. 



* This conversation took place some months before the 
great fire at Boston, or, doubtless, Sir John would have ex- 
pressed his sorrow at that lamentable catastrophe, and his 
sympathy with the sufferers. 

N 



178 ANIMALS AND 

Sir Arthur. That is an odd phrase, ' arrangements 
for friendship and companionship/ 

Ellesmere. You may disapprove of the phrase if 
you like ; but, depend upon it, the continuance of 
friendship and the maintenance of companionship 
can be furthered or hindered by various commonplace 
things, physical even in their character, which have 
nothing whatever to do with the romance of friend- 
ship or the joys of companionship. 

Cranmer. Is not the increase of locomotion a 
counteracting force, Ellesmere — I mean one that pro- 
motes the continuance of friendship ? 

Ellesme?'e. Oh, no, not a bit ; or, at least, only 
very little. Just as people see more of the surface of 
countries by this increased locomotion, so also they 
may have increased superficial conversancy with former 
friends and companions. But friendship and com- 
panionship must, to a great extent, depend upon 
neighbourhood. You can't get rid of that physical fact ; 
and therefore the aim of everyone should be to make 
the necessary daily converse he has with his fellow- 
creatures a means of friendship and companionship. 
Look at ourselves. We are all brought together to 
( the great wen,' as Cobbett called it — at least for a 
large part of the year. If I were a country rector, what 
real use should I be to you for companionship ? 
think I hear you say, occasionally but very rarely, 



THEIR MASTERS. 179 

r 

'Do you remember that man Ellesmere at college? 
He is buried somewhere in the country. If he were 
here now, how he would endeavour to agree with 
each one of us, and try to place all our views in the 
best light !' But you would gradually forget me and 
my merits altogether. 

Cranmer. It requires a painful effort of the ima- 
gination to picture Ellesmere as a rector in a distant 
country parish. 

Milverton. But there is a great deal of truth in 
what he says. One must rely much upon neigh- 
bourhood, or proximity of some sort, for the main- 
tenance of companionship. Now in London one has 
no neighbours. 

Cranmer, I am going to shock you all ; but I 
must confess that I do like talk of that kind which is 
vulgarly called ' shop ; ? and that is a thing indepen- 
dent, to a certain extent, of neighbourhood. 

Ellesmere. Very true, Cranmer. ' Shop talk y is 
very good talk. It is earnest : it is real : and, pro- 
vided it does not shut other people out of the con- 
versation, it is decidedly a thing to be encouraged 
rather than discouraged. It is quite right and proper 
that Cranmer should stand up for it, for of all persons 
on the earth who talk l shop/ commend me to official 
and parliamentary people. A few weeks ago I was 
honoured by being invited to a male dinner of official 

N 2 



180 ANIMALS AND 

and parliamentary persons. I was the only lawyer 
present, at least the only practising lawyer. I declare 
to you that, with the exception of myself and my 
neighbour whom I drew away from his favourite 
topics, every other person round the table was either 
talking or listening to official or parliamentary talk. 
I made the remark at the time, and it was not denied. 
They all appeared to enjoy themselves amazingly. I 
therefore am quite prepared to accede to Cranmer's 
views upon the question. 

Now to quite another point. Don't you think it was 
a little insolent on Milverton's part to speak as he did 
of the great conversational powers of men of letters ? 

Milverton. Perhaps it was audacious ; but it is 
true; and the reason of it is not far to seek. It is 
because their range of subjects is so wide. Now, 
imagine what a number of questions a man must 
have looked into who writes a history ! I overheard a 
well-known historian talking the other day on a point 
of law with one of the most learned of your tribe, Elles- 
mere. The lawyer said, ' I suppose we are the only 
two human beings who have looked into this subject 
for the last century/ I do not unreasonably exalt the 
conversational merits of men of letters, but only ex- 
plain them by saying that it is part of their business 
to know a great many things pretty well. They don't 
pretend to be finished experts, as professional men 



THEIR MASTERS, 181 

are; but they have more general knowledge, which 
naturally enters into conversation. For instance, the 
branch of law which that historian was discussing, was 
perhaps the only one he knew anything about ; but 
probably it gave him an insight into the way you 
lawyers view questions, and so it put him into a sort 
of relation towards you all, and made him somewhat 
of a better companion for you than he would other- 
wise have been. But, to use a homely proverb, i the 
proof of the pudding is in the eating.' What com- 
panions many of you must have known among the 
distinguished men of letters and science of the present 
day ! You ascertain what are the joys of high com- 
panionship when you take a walk with Carlyle, Emer- 
son, Froude, Kingsley, Tennyson, Browning, and 
many others whom I could mention. Then, take 
those who have gone from us ; how great a reputation 
many of them had as companions, and I do not 
doubt it was a well-founded reputation ! I may name 
Wordsworth, Sydney Smith, Jeffrey, Rogers, Moore ; 
and, to give an instance of a purely literary man, 
Dean Milman. That learned dean seemed to his 
contemporaries to know everything. He was never at 
fault, they say, in the conversation. 

Sir Arthur. Do you remember, in Lockhart's 4 Life 
of Scott,' Sir Walter's coming up on one occasion to 
London, and being invited day after day to different 



1 82 ANIMALS AND 

sets of men, and how he narrates that the conversation 
of the bishops was the best he heard in London? 
And why? Because the bishops, as a general rule, 
are men of letters. 

Milverton. I beg to include men of science and 
men of art in the same category, namely, as having 
especial qualifications for good companionship. Now, 
do look at what an artist has to master — nature — man — 
everything. I have never met with such good judges 
of character as I have found among artists ; and if it 
were a great object for me to understand the character 
of any man, I would rather hear what the painter who 
painted his portrait would say of him, than what even 
his most intimate friend could tell me. 

Sit Arthur. You see, the advantage these men of 
letters, science, and art, have as companions, is, that 
their respective occupations make almost every kind 
of human effort interesting to them. Now, a young 
engineer was in a company where there was a very 
learned man. The young fellow talked disrespectfully, 
as one of the company thought, who was a near rela- 
tive ; (not that he meant to be disrespectful, for any 
feeling of the kind was foreign from his real nature), 
This near relative — I may as well say it was his father 
— took him aside, and said, 6 You are very disrespect- 
ful, my dear boy ; don't you know that he is a man of 
some celebrity, and I dare say could tell you how to 



THEIR MASTERS. 183 

interpret the arrowheaded characters of the time of 
Sennacherib ? ' The youth replied, ' Why should I 
respect him ? he can't drive a nail straight through 
the leathern sole of a highlow ; I don't think much of 
him.' Now where the learned man would 'have a 
pull/ to use a slang phrase of the day, over this young 
man is in this way. If it were explained to our 
learned friend that it was a matter of difficulty to 
drive a nail straight through a mass of leather, he 
would probably estimate the feat, and respect the man 
who could do it accordingly ; but it may be well 
doubted whether the young man would return the 
compliment, and have an equal estimation for the 
other's hard work, that of the interpretation of arrow- 
headed characters. 

Ellesmere. After this glorification of men of science, 
art, and literature, let us hear a little about statesmen. 
I want to know more about Lord Palmerston. Lord 
Palmerston's character is a subject upon which Sir 
Arthur and Milverton, who knew him officially, are 
always ready to discourse at large. I, too, liked 
Lord Palmerston hugely, though he was upon the 
opposite side of the House, and sometimes even dared 
to make fun of me. 

Sir Arthur. At a dinner-table, or in general 
society, Lord Palmerston, though always genial, did 
not always shine ; but when you were at home with 



1 84 ANIMALS AND 

him, or when you were at work with him, or when you 
were walking with him, he was a charming companion. 
And what was said about his avoidance of the past, 
and his intense interest in the present and the future, is 
exactly true. I saw a great deal of him in the last 
ten years of his, life, and I only remember two or 
three instances when he went back upon the past ; 
but, as regards our hopes and prospects for the future, 
he was always ready to discourse at large, whether 
the subject was agriculture, or law, or politics, or 
political economy. 

Milverton. I am curious to know what were the 
two or three instances to which you allude. 

Sir Arthur. Well : I had the audacity to joke with 
him about his beautiful handwriting. You know he 
wrote a better handwriting than any other man of his 
time. I said, ' I am afraid good handwriting has not 
always been a sign of great virtue in the writer. The 
next best handwriting to yours, Lord Palmerston, is 
Lucrezia Borgia's.' He parried the attack ; and then 
gave instances of good handwriting, and mentioned 
Louis- Philippe's, describing that monarch's signature 
to the last document he signed as king — something 
relating to his abdication, if I recollect rightly. And 
then Lord Palmerston recounted to me the whole of 
the secret history of that transaction, and of the king's 
flight to England. 



THEIR MASTERS. 185 

Milverton. How I should like to have heard it ! 
Give us another instance, Sir Arthur, of his recurrence 
to the past. 

Sir Arthur. I think I have given it before ; but, 
perhaps, not to this company. We were walking 
together in the grounds at Broadlands, and he began 
to speak for once, and once only, of his early life. 

He told me that early in life his house was next to 
that of a great lady who frequently gave balls ; and 
he said it used to amuse him to notice the rise, pro- 
gress, and decline of the ball, as he continued to work 
throughout the night. 

First there were to be heard the faint attempts, 
at intervals, before many people had arrived, to 
commence the business of the evening. Then soon 
afterwards the gaiety began to get warm. Then 
it became fast and furious. Suddenly there was 
comparative silence, it being supper-time. After- 
wards the gaiety became more fast and more furious. 
Then it gradually sobered down as the ' small hours ' 
of the night advanced; and the rattling noise of 
departing carriages began. Then came the last faint 
accents of the ball, somewhat corresponding with 
those made by the early attempts at gaiety at the 
beginning of the evening. Then the last carriage 
drove away ; and the ladies of the next house would 
come out upon the balcony, looking rather pale and 



x86 ANIMALS AND 

worn. He, too, would go out upon his balcony and 
watch the dull dawn coming in so mournfully. 

Mauleverer. As if it felt ashamed that it was about 
to awaken so many toilworn and miserable people to 
fresh toil and fresh misery. 

Sir Arthur. Lord Palmerston did not say anything 
like that, Mauleverer. 

While he was talking to me, I kept thinking, not of 
the dancers, but of himself, and how justly he had 
attained to his great position, by the labour he had 
given in his earliest years to make himself fitted for it. 
He was very modest too. Do you remember in the 
story of his life, how he refused to take a great office 
and to become a Cabinet Minister when he was yet 
very young, giving as his reason for refusal, that he 
was not equal to the place, and had not sufficient 
knowledge for it ? 

Ellesmere. I told you that there was no subject 
upon which we were so sure to make these official men 
go off, as it were, as the subject of Lord Palmerston. 

Milvcrton. I will tell you how this is. I think he 
is not sufficiently estimated in the present day. He 
was a consummate man of business, and that en- 
deared him to me. But, indeed, great statesmen are 
seldom sufficiently estimated by posterity. How few 
of us know much, comparatively speaking, of Canning, 
of Huskisson,- of Lord Aberdeen, and of many other 



THEIR MASTERS. 187 

statesmen who might be named, and who in fact 
were very eminent men ! They give you the best 
part of their lives ; they are but poorly rewarded 
during their lifetime; and I think they are not 
sufficiently remembered afterwards, especially in a 
free country. The same thing, too, will happen with 
the present men. The despotic minister of a despotic 
monarch generally looms large in history ; and, what- 
ever his qualifications may have been, he enters into 
poetry and into history as a prominent figure. Yet the 
free minister of a constitutional sovereign is often a 
much greater man, and has much greater difficulties 
to contend with. 

Ellesmere. There is one comfort in talking with 
Milverton — one always knows where one is with him. 
.The official part of him is never absent. 

Milverton. Observe the laboriousness of these 
men. They deserve ample recognition, if only for 
that. Oh ! I must tell you a story about a man 
occupying a very different position from a statesman, 
but you will soon see why this story occurs to me now. 

You all know our gardener, John Withers, what a 
good, kind, cross, tyrannical person he is. Well,, 
there is a certain vegetable of which you have par- 
taken lately, Ellesmere, at our table. From some 
mere book knowledge of soil and climate, I ventured 
to say that it would grow in this country, and even in 



1 88 ANIMALS AND 

this garden. John said it would not. Gardeners, like 
women, are inveterate Conservatives. 

Lady Ellesmere. The most useful of men are 
likely to partake the nature of women. 

Milverton. However, feigning an abject humility 
to his dictum, I still persuaded him, just for the sake 
of humouring me, to put in some seeds, and attempt 
to grow this vegetable. It flourished amazingly, as 
you have seen. My wife (what moral courage, not to 
say audacity, women possess !) must needs comment to 
John upon this success. * You see, John, it has done 
very well, as your master said it would.' Then again, 
after a few minutes, ' Your master was quite right, 
John.' At length he grew tired of hearing my praises ; 
and he uttered these memorable words : — ( Lfs not 
he's saying of it : it's 'tention does it — 'tention does 
it ' .* meaning that his tf/tention was the real cause of 
the success. You know his habit of cutting off the 
first or the last syllable of every important word. 

Well, I say too 'It's 'tention does it,' whether the 
'tention is given by gardeners or by statesmen. 

The iwo great requisites for the grandest forms of 
success are simply to care very much about anything, 
and to give "tendon* to it. 

Sir Arthur. How completely this word ( 'tention ' 
brings us back to our subject, if indeed it could be 
said that we have wandered from it ! Companions 



THEIR MASTERS. 189 

are interesting companions accordingly as they take 
a deep interest in anything. 

Milverton. Almost all persons have a potentiality 
of good companionship : you have only to get them 
upon some subject that they really care about, that 
they have paid ' Mention to/ and their companionship, 
if I may use such a word, is developed. 

Sir Arthur. Whenever you enter by some chance 
into a new phase of society, you find what clever, in- 
telligent, even charming people there are in that 
society, and what interest they take in matters respect- 
ing which, perhaps, you did not think that there was 
anything interesting at all until you came to know 
these people. Everywhere there are the elements of 
good, even of high, companionship ; and this does not 
depend upon education. I am afraid the world is 
beginning to think too much of education. One of 
the best companions I ever knew was a man who 
could neither read nor write. He had large views of 
everything he talked about. Observation and expe- 
rience had done for him what we are apt to suppose 
can only be done by a sort of literary education. 
You will think it perhaps extravagant of me to say; 
but I seem to myself to see in such men how a 
Shakespeare arose ; for, say what you like, Shake- 
speare must have had mighty little education, accord- 
ing to our notion of the word. 



190 ANIMALS AND 

That makes me think of a weak point in Lord 
Palmerston. Nothing could persuade him that Shake- 
speare wrote Shakespeare's Plays. ( What ! ' he would 
exclaim, 'you are not so foolish as to suppose that 
the man yciu call Shakespeare really did write those 
plays which show such a wealth of knowledge. I am 
surprised at you.' 






There was then a rather long discussion about 
Shakespeare's learning, with which my readers need 
not to be troubled. The conversation, after a time, 
received quite a different direction, being brought 
back to its original subject-matter by Sir John 
Ellesmere's abruptly saying : 

A great essay might be written on a subject kindred 
to your own, Milverton, and which I would entitle 
'The unjust claims made for companionship, or the 
unjust resentments entertained on account of non- 
companionship or failing companionship. , In the 
works of all great writers of fiction, I have almost 
always felt that their greatest successes have been in 
the portraying of their minor characters. The reason 
is, that they indulge less in exaggeration in depicting 
these characters. You will not at first see how this 
applies. I was thinking that the unjust claims for 
companionship are generally made by persons who 



THEIR MASTERS. 191 

have a spurious kind of humility. Then I naturally- 
thought of Uriah Heep, in one of Dickens's novels ; 
but I soon saw what a much better character, to 
illustrate my meaning, was that of Mrs. Gummidge, 
in the same novel. She is always intimating that she 
is neglected, and her character is admirably drawn. 
There is a great deal of what I call ' Gummidge ' 
talked in the world, and very unreasonable talk it is. 

Sir Arthur. But the whole subject might be much 
more widely treated. The person who complains of 
want of companionship nearly always makes an unjust 
complaint. 

Milverton. Yes : he generally fails to throw him- 
self at all into the position of the other side. 

For instance, companionship, such as it existed in 
former days between two persons, is rendered impos- 
sible, or at least very difficult, by a change of 
circumstances ; and then one of the companions is 
nearly sure to blame the other, and to attribute 
motives, which have nothing whatever to do with 
the falling off of companionship. 

A great mistake, which I suspect we are all prone 
to make as regards friendship, has been pointed out 
by a German writer of much originality, named 
Arthur Schopenhauer ; and what he says would 
apply to companionship. He says, ' What we de- 
mand from a friend, and what we promise ourselves 



192 ANIMALS AND 

on our own behalf, we fix after the measuring-scale of 
his and our best moments, and thence arises dis- 
satisfaction with others, with ourselves, and with our 
condition.' * 

Now we should never expect from others, nor 
promise for ourselves, more than belongs to our 
average capacity in anything. 

Ellesmere. I want to carry you away to quite a 
different subject, in fact to revert to our animal talk, in 
respect to which there is one point upon which, I think, 
you have shown yourself a little cowardly, Milverton. 
I made a note in my mind, to tell you of this. 

Milverton. I really don't know what you mean, 
Ellesmere. I am not in the habit of refraining from 
saying anything I think upon any subject to any 
person. 

Ellesmere. Well : you have said nothing about 
sport. 

Milverton. If so, it was an oversight. My mind 
was full of matters connected with the treatment of 
animals, respecting which I knew something — such as 
the transit of animals. Moreover, having lived in the 

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bem $ttaa${tab fetner unb unferer beften 2Cugcnbltc?e/ unb 
batau§ ern>&d)ft Unjufriebenfyeit mit tfnbern, mtt un$ unb mtt 
unferem Sufranbe.. 



THEIR MASTERS. 193 

country, I ha\e been led to observe the management 
of animals on farms. But, as regards sporting, you 
could not find a more ignorant human being. My 
experience of hunting, for instance, which was limited 
to one occasion, mainly accords with that of Dr. 
Johnson, who says somewhere : — 

I have now learned, by hunting, to perceive that it is no 
diversion at all, nor ever takes a man out of himself for a 
moment : the dogs have less sagacity than I could have pre- 
vailed on myself to suppose ; and the gentlemen often call 
to me not to ride over them. It is very strange, and very 
melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should per- 
suade us ever to call hunting one of them. 

Of course, as you might expect, I agree with most 
of what Mr. Freeman has written on the subject of 
sport. And these Pigeon Matches, and things of that 
kind, seem to me very poor, contemptible, and brutal- 
izing transactions. How women can ' assist ' at such 
entertainments passes my comprehension. But I 
do not pretend to have thought carefully upon the 
general subject of sport, and therefore it never occurred 
to me to dilate upon it. Is that a sufficient answer, 
Ellesmere ? 

Ellesmere. H'm ! Pretty well : but it is one of 
those nice questions that I should like to have heard 
discussed. 

Cranmer. And you would have flitted about from 

o 



194 ANIMALS AND 

side to side, and would have been equally troublesome 
to both sides. 

Elles?nere. Oh ! there is another point in our talk 
about animals which I wish to put before you. I have 
been reading this book, Tucker's * Light of Nature 
Pursued,' which you told me I was sure to like. You 
were right. The author is great upon the subject of 
boys. Listen to what he says about them. 

Those of the sprightliest temper are commonly fullest of 
mischief : because being unable to bear the sight of every- 
thing languid around them, they can raise more stir by vex- 
ing than by doing service .... and for the like reason 
they throw stones at people, because they can put them 
thereby into a greater flutter than by anything else they could 
do. Or, if they have not an opportunity of seeing the vexa- 
tion occasioned by the pranks they play, still they can enjoy 
the thought of it ; and will break a window slily, hide a 
workman's tool, or fasten up his door, for sake of the fancy 
of how much he will fret and fume when he comes to discover 
the roguery. * 

Then he uses an excellent phrase, namely, 'the 
engagingness of mischief.' But it was not merely to 
amuse you that I read these passages. They brought 
to my mind something which seems to bear upon our 
general subject. Is not the greatest part of all our 
cruelty, whether to our fellow-men or to our fellow- 

* Tucker's Light of Nature Pursued, vol. vii. pp. 9, 10. 









THEIR MASTERS. 195 

animals, attributable to our horror of dulness, and our 
anxiety to ' raise stir' ? 

Sir Arthur. Your general remark, Ellesmere, is 
good ; but I do not think it has special application to 
our subject. 

Milverton. No ; intentional cruelty, from whatever 
cause arising, is but a small part of the matter. It is 
careless cruelty, or ignorant cruelty, that we have most 
to guard against. 

Milverton. I will tell you fully my thoughts upon 
this subject. It appears to me that the great advance- 
ment of the world throughout all ages, is to be mea- 
sured by the increase of humanity and the decrease of 
cruelty. In hardly anything else do we feel sure that 
there is advancement. One folly dies out and another 
folly takes its place. As regards any particular vice 
or error, it is often difficult to trace any assured im- 
provement for many centuries. For instance, the 
upper classes drink less imprudently than they did 
in former generations ; but it may be questioned 
whether, generally speaking, drunkenness is less pre- 
valent or less harmful at present than at any former 
period. There are times when Art seems to culminate 
and then to descend. A similar statement would 
apply to literature. There are golden ages, and then 
there are silvern ; and then there are leaden. Then 
again there comes, perhaps, a move upwards. Even 

o 2 



196 ANIMALS AND 

science, in which there has been a more steady move- 
ment of continuous advance than in any other intel- 
lectual pursuit, has its periods of comparative decline 
and elevation. But if you take the history of the 
world throughout, you must, I think, admit that hu- 
manity has been continually upon the increase. 

Now you may speak discontentedly about its rate of 
progress : you may say that desolating wars still are 
frequent in the world ; but only read the history of 
former wars, and you will perceive what an immense 
move has been made in the direction towards hu- 
manity, even in these most barbarous transactions. I 
am convinced that if an historian of world-wide know- 
ledge, supposing there could be such a man, were to 
sum up the gains and losses of the world at the end of 
each recorded century, there might be much which was 
retrograde in other aspects of human life and conduct, 
but nothing that could show a backward course in 
humanity. Even as regards those instances of cruelty 
and brutality which have been mentioned in the course 
of our conversations, it must be admitted that some are 
exceptional ; that others are heedless rather than in- 
tentional ; and that when brought before the bar of 
public opinion, they are universally condemned. It 
would also, I think, be seen in any such review of a 
century as I have imagined, that all which was sup- 
ported by inhumanity, or even by violence, has come 



THEIR MASTERS. 197 

to nought ; and as that great poet Schiller says of a 
tumultuous inundation, the destruction alone which it 
has caused remains to show that it ever existed.* A 
river is not formed : nothing that is useful for men 
remains as the result of all this violence, and we can 
only trace its existence by the mischief it has accom- 
plished. 

It seems as if the main design of Providence had 
been to bring upon this earth a race of beings per- 
petually improving as regards humanity. We arrogate 
this word to ourselves. I cannot but believe, that if 
we ceased to fulfil the conditions which are assumed 
in that word, we should be supplanted by another 
race. And therefore I feel, that even in this minor 
matter (if indeed it can be called a minor matter) of 
our treatment of the inferior animals associated with 
us, if we failed to exercise the requisite humanity, it 
would go hard with ourselves. The fact that our own 
material welfare depends much upon our treatment of 



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£)onnernb mtt fort tm SBogengefcfywemme, 
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SfyteS £aufeS furdjtbare @pur 
©efyt serrinnenb im <Sanbe tterloren/ 
£)te 3erjT6riM3 serf unbtgt jie nur. 

©fe fSvaut oon SRefltno ,— ©d&f Her, 



198 ANIMALS AND 

the lower animals, rather seems to verify than to 
militate against the foregoing conclusion. 

Ellesmere. I have not been so much interested for 
a long time in any subject as I am in this. When it 
was first started, I expected from the nature of our 
host, that it would be treated rather sentimentally, 
and though in this case I happen to sympathise with 
the sentiment, I did not expect to hear much of what 
was practically interesting ; but I have come to con- 
sider this matter as one of the deepest importance at 
the present time. During your absence, Milverton 
has told me many things which he has not mentioned 
in general conversation. You see, with the exception 
of certain official and scientific persons, he ought 
to know more than most people about the treatment 
of cattle. 

Milverton. It is not very pleasant to be talked 
about in this way before one's face ; but still, as the 
result is not unpleasing, I accept the talk. It means 
that Ellesmere thinks I am in general given to theory 
and sentiment ; but that on this rare occasion I have 
something practical to say for myself. 

Ellesinere. I flatter myself that I also have found 
something very practical to bring before you ; but I 
must do so by degrees, working up to my point. Mil- 
verton has imparted to me several of the main facts 
relating to cattle plague. He showed me from data 



THEIR MASTERS. 199 

that cannot be contradicted, that in the great out- 
break of '66 we lost cattle, the value of which 
amounted to more than five millions. He then showed 
me that the number of animals lost during the present 
year in Europe amounted to several hundreds of thou- 
sands. You see this is a very serious thing for the 
whole world. 

Milverton. I wish here to recall to your memo- 
ries a fact to which you may have given little 
heed at the time. During the late war between 
France and Germany, you may occasionally have no- 
ticed that a foreign correspondent would say, 'The 
French peasants in this neighbourhood declare that 
they have suffered more from the cattle plague intro- 
duced by the Germans, than by any depredations 
committed by the German soldiery.' 

Ellesmere. Milverton also showed me how vast 
had been the destruction of cattle, from the disease, 
during two periods in the course of the last cen- 
tury. 

Cranmer. Well, we admit all this — what then ? 

Ellesmere. Do you remember that at the beginning 
of our talk — the first day we were all here — Sir 
Arthur was rather put down by Milverton for bringing 
forward difference of race as a cause of any difference 
of treatment of animals? This branch of the subject 
ought, in my opinion, to have had more weight given 



2.oo ANIMALS AND 

i 

to it. Can anyone tell us anything of this difference 
of treatment ? What about Russia, for instance ? 

Sir Arthur. All that I know of the treatment 
of animals in Russia is derived from Custine. I 
should not say that his idea of the treatment is favour- 
able. And he makes this observation, that the Rus- 
sians have no laws for the protection of animals, as 
there are in England. What made me notice this 
passage was that I was surprised to find that Custine 
had any knowledge of our laws. 

Milverton. It is such a wide subject, that one is 
afraid of being dogmatic about it, and of being dog- 
matically wrong. I don't mind giving you my im- 
pressions ; but I have scarcely anything more than 
impressions to offer. From what I have heard and 
seen the Germans are very good to their animals. So 
are the French, with the exception of those abomi- 
nable vivisecting surgeons. In Spain, if you recollect, 
Ellesmere, we observed great brutality in the treat- 
ment of the mules in the diligences ; but otherwise we 
thought the Spaniards tolerably humane to animals. 
I make a special exception, of course, in regard to 
their bull-fights.. You see, this is a subject which 
probably has seemed to travellers not worthy of much 
observation. Nothing that I have read in books of 
travel in America has given me much information as 
regards their treatment of animals. I iam very curious 



THEIR MASTERS. 201 

to kiiow what it is ; and if I were to travel in America, 
it would be one of the principal things that I should 
try to ascertain. I also long to know how animals are 
treated in Russia. These two nations are, together 
with ourselves, the most growing nations in the world ; 
and the future treatment of animals must greatly de- 
pend upon the views and habits affecting these crea- 
tures, which may be adopted by the Americans, the 
Russians, and ourselves. I can venture to contradict 
Custine on this point. There is a law which certainly 
prevails in some of the Governments of Russia, that 
when you are posting, you must have a horse for every 
adult passenger. If there are six of you, you must 
hire six horses, not necessarily attached to the same 
carriage, but three horses to each set of three travellers, 
for they would divide your party into two. This is a 
small matter, but still it shows some effort at legis- 
lation in favour of animals. 

Ellesmere. Now you are coming dose to the point 
which is, in my mind, of the greatest practical im- 
portance and which I have been working up to. 

You have admitted that this cattle plague is one of 
the most serious things at present before us. I can 
even foresee that serious political troubles might be 
occasioned by the dearness of provisions, which this 
pest may at some time suddenly produce. 

Now, here is the question. Is it the treatment of 



202 ANIMALS AND 

animals, or is it climate, or some other unavoidable 
cause, which breeds this disease ? Suppose it - to be 
treatment ; suppose it to be something which more 
judicious, or rather less injudicious mode of housing, 
feeding, and wintering could mitigate or prevent — 
how all important it becomes to Europe, and indeed, 
to the whole world, to ascertain these facts ! I am, of 
course, alluding to those parts of the earth where this 
disease is supposed to be bred. 

Here is something practical to be done. Galicia, 
Milverton tells me, is a country from which, as a 
centre, cattle plague spreads. He says, that he knows 
of but one man who has travelled in Galicia, and that 
good man, Professor Symonds, went with the object 
of investigating the cattle plague. His knowledge has 
been most serviceable to this country. But I want a 
great deal more done. I want some one to go there 
and to stay and study the agricultural modes of pro- 
ceeding in that country, and in those parts of Russia, 
where the cattle plague may be almost said to have its 
home. Your friend Ruskin, Milverton, is often show- 
ing men what they should do to make life better and 
more beautiful. I wish we could enlist his eloquence 
on our side. Here really is a great field for wise ex- 
ertion. 

Cranmer. I declare Ellesmere is becoming quite 
enthusiastic and eloquent. 



THEIR MASTERS. 203 

Ellesmere. If you don't behave yourself, Cranmer, 
I shall suggest that the Government should do some- 
thing, and that I know will give you pain, for it will 
cost money. 

Now, do you all follow me ? I do not mind repeat- 
ing concisely what I wish to urge upon you. This 
cattle plague is a tremendous evil. Its continual 
presence is to be dreaded by reason, as Milverton told 
me, of the increase of railway facilities for transit. 
The railway system is now complete from those dis- 
tricts which are the supposed foci of the disease to 
our own shores. We should try to master the evil at 
these foci. You who care very much about the suffer- 
ings of animals, should hate this disease, as it is one 
accompanied by great suffering to the poor creatures. 
But even more than that you should care, if you 
are statesmen, for the supply of food to the poorest of 
our population. It may be that the treatment of the 
animals at these central places of infection is the 
cause of the infection ; and if so, the remedy consists 
in improving that treatment there. If cholera were the 
subject of our discourse, I should put forth similar views 
about that. Here is an object of real benevolence of 
the most practical kind. Milverton said, we might be 
satisfied that our talk had not been useless, if we put 
down the bearing-rein ; but what is the bearing-rein 
compared with the cattle plague ? The object that I 



204 ANIMALS AND 

have puc forward, embraces almost every branch of 
the subject we have been considering— the instruction 
to be given about animals ; the treatment of animals by 
the owner ; the transit of animals ; the effects of dif- 
ference of race in the treatment of animals ; and in- 
deed, every part of the subject that has direct practi- 
cal importance, both as regards humanity, policy, and 
political economy. I have said my say. 

Sir Arthur, I wish, Ellesmere, you had said all 
this, before I gave my summary of our sayings. I 
assure you, I should not have neglected to give your 
suggestion a prominent place, 

Milverton, As you may imagine, I agree with every 
word that Ellesmere has said. I only wish to point 
out to you a further consequence that may result from 
the investigations he has proposed. It is this, that if 
it should be proved that the treatment of animals in 
those countries which are the foci of this disease 
should not be the true cause of its existence being 
developed there, a system of quarantine combined 
with slaughter must be adopted jointly by all the 
principal countries of Eastern Europe. 

Mrs. Milverton. Now I should like to go back to 
companionship. Nothing has been said cf the com- 
panionship of men and women. I mean nothing 
special relating to that branch of the subject. 

Lady Ellesmere. Very true, Blanche. I observed 
that when these men went into a discussion of the 



THEIR MASTERS. 205 

heights of grand companionship, it was only the 
society of other men they were thinking of. Rather 
impolite, I thought. 

Milverton. By way of answer to you both, the 
words of two poets immediately occur (to me. Please 
give me ' Philip Van Artevelde/ Johnson. 

In that beautiful interlude between the two parts of 
Philip's life, there is the following passage. I must 
first, though, give you a little description of the 
context. Elena, early in life, before she met with 
Philip, had fallen in loye with a young man very 
inferior to herself : — 

The well-spring of his love was -poor 
Compared to hers : his gifts were fewer j 
The total light that was. in him 
Before a spark of hers grew dim ; 
Too high, too grave, too^large, too deep, 
Her love could neither laugh nor sleep— 
And thus it tired him. 

Then the poet goes on to say — 

His desire 
Was for a less consuming fire : 
He wished that she should love him well, 
Not wildly ; wished her passion's spell 
To charm her heart, but leave her fancy free ; 
To quicken converse, not to quell ; 
He granted he: to sigh, for so could he ; 
But when she wept, why should it be ? 
'Twas irksome, for it stole away 
The joy of his love holiday. 



206 ANIMALS AND 

Now I have always thought that Sir Henry Taylor 

has treated that young man, name unknown, rather 

harshly, for I strongly suspect that most men, even of 

the superior kind, greatly resemble him. I do not 

think that Elena could have been a very pleasant 

companion, and I believe that companionship has a 

great deal to do with the maintenance of love. The 

love is to be a thing always understood, coming under 

the first requisite mentioned in the essay as the basis 

of companionship, namely, personal liking; but it 

does not require to be perpetually expressed. Now I 

come to the other poet, Byron. Manfred says, I 

recollect the words : — 

She was like me in lineaments— her eyes, 
Her hair, her features, all, to the very tone 
Even of her voice, they said were like to mine ; 
But soften'd all, and temper'd into beauty ; 
She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings, 
The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind 
To comprehend the universe ; nor these 
Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine, 
Pity, and smiles, and tears — which I had not, 
And tenderness — but that I had for her ; 
Humility — and that I never had. 
Her faults were mine — her virtues were her own. 

These two passages give two instances of the com- 
panionship of men and women — one successful, the 
other the reverse. The exceeding charm of this 
companionship will always consist in difference of 



THEIR MASTERS. 207 

character. In the latter instance, the difference co- 
exists with a tender similitude. That, perhaps, would 
create the highest form of companionship. 

In the former instance, what was wanting, the 
want of which troubled this small-souled young man 
as it would trouble most men, was the kind of love 
which should ensure good companionship, fitted 

To quicken converse, not to quell. 

The difference of character should have given a zest 
to companionship, not destroyed it. To create this 
kind of companionship great intellectual gifts are not 
required on the part of the lesser personage of the 
two companions, but only perceptiveness and recep- 
tiveness ; though, of course, it will always be the better 
and the larger if there should be these intellectual 
gifts. I have nothing more to say upon the subject. 

Lady Ellesmere. You have not said anything, 
Leonard, about men and women who live together, 
and who differ upon every earthly subject. How will 
they get on ? 

Milverton, I really think, my dear, I have met 
this case. I said that difference rather created 
pleasure than not, in companionship, and that this 
might even extend to difference of tastes ; but that 
the difference must not be made offensive. You all 
know what I mean. One cannot state such com- 



2oS ANIMALS AND 

plicated matters in such a way as to guard them 
from all objection. We all know, especially you 
ladies, when we are making ourselves disagreeable, 
and so embittering companionship. There are times 
when a man will bear to hear his most cherished 
convictions not only opposed, but ridiculed. There 
are other times when it is unsafe to do this. Tact, of 
which you women possess an almost unfair share, 
will easily enable you to distinguish between these 
times ; and your large possession of this invaluable 
quality, tact, enables you to become at all times the 
most delightful companions that can be imagined to 
us poor men. 

Lady Ellesmere. Let us go immediately, Blanche. 
I have a wild desire, have not you ? to see how your 
good, cross-grained gardener, John, who has had so 
much weight and influence in this conversation, has 
planned put the new gravel- walk; which we must all 
say is the closest approach to perfection. If we 
stay any longer here, my husband or some of the 
other gentlemen will begin taking exceptions, or 
making qualifications which will tend to deface and 
disfigure the fine things which Leonard has just been 
saying of us. Not that I quite like what he said 
about Elena ; but still I suppose it was as much as 
we could expect from a man. 



THEIR MASTERS. 209 

The ladies immediately rose, we followed them ; 
and the rest of the afternoon was spent in con- 
sidering gardening projects, submitted with the 
greatest deference, even by Sir John, to his name- 
sake, the gardener. 

What an advantage a bad temper would be ta 
one if it did not bite at both ends ; if it did not 
make one's self nearly as miserable as it does 
other people ! 

This was the last day of our holiday, and we 
returned on the morrow to our weary work in 
London. 



INDEX. 



-*<>♦- 



A BERDEEN, Lord, 1 86 
*- ** Accuracy, a divine, 35 
Addison, quotation from, 143 
Adverse argument, stating an, 69 
Agreements, family, 28 
Agriculture, Bastiat on, 11 
Anaxagoras on animal reason, 64, 84 
Angelic Doctor, quotation from the, 88 
Animals, courtesy to, 101 

— cruelty to, 8, 19, 43, 44, 45, 193, 195, &a 

— diseases of, n 

— dumb, 129 

— familiarity with, 9 

— fear, 48 

— memory of, 57 

— overcrowding, 18 

— poets and, 120 

— reasoning powers of, 65, 108 

— rights of, 44 

— sermons on behalf of, 2^ 

— sufferings of, 99 



2T2 INDEX. 

Animals (continued), Sunday rest for, 63 

— treatment of, in Russia, 200; from habits of race, 12, 
199 

Anecdote about calumny, 25 

— Mr. Cranmer and his father, 31 

v — Ellesmere and the drowning cat, 131 

— young engineer and man of letters, 183 

— Frenchman out riding, 22 

— fox and hounds, 55 

— Milverton's upset from boat, 3 

— the two statesmen in a cab, 161 

— Thackeray and oysters, 50 

— Lord Palmerston, 183-6, 190 

— John Withers, 187 

— the word 'contrive,' 145 
Anxiety, 49 

Apology for Raimond de Sebonde. Quotation from Mon- 
taigne's, 91 
Applause, 142 

Aquinas, Thomas, quotation from, 88 
'Arcana Politica,'' quotation from the, note, 86 
Aristotle, 75 ; on man, 105 
Arnold, Dr., quotation from, 98 
Arnold, Edwin, quotation from, 108 
Arrowheaded characters, 183 
Art of .writing, the, 33 
Artists as judges of character, 182 
Avitus, Junius, 29 



BACON, quotation from, 140 ; and Machiavelli, 138 
Balls, Lord Palmerston's account of a neighbour's, 185 
Barclay, Dr., quoted by Grindon, 100 



INDEX. 213 

Barlasus's anecdote of a fox, 55 

Barrow's Sermons, quoted for clearness of expression, 34 

Bastiat, 10; quotation from, 1 1 

Bayle, quotation from, 98 

Bearing-reins, 10, 66 ; not used in Scotland, 67 ; human, 

72, 78 
Beavers, 52 

Berkeley, Bishop, on designing, 84 ; on law-making, 85 
Birds, as pets, 23; Voltaire on, 74; Montaigne on, q* * 

Petrarch on, 93 
Bishops as companions, 185 
Blair, Dr., 70 
Bores, 174-76 
Boyle on animals, 102 
Boys, and accidents, 4 ; Tucker on, quotation from ' Light 

of Nature Pursued,' 194 
Breaks, want of, 80 
Brougham, quotation from Lord, 118 
Browning as a companion, 181 
Burke as a good companion, 175 
Butterflies, ladies and, 50 
'Bus horse's letter in the ' Echo,' 80 
Byron, quotation from, 206 



CAB, anecdote of two statesmen in a, 161 
Caged birds, 23 
Calumny, anecdote about, 25 
Canning but little known, 186 
Cardan, Jerome, quotation from, 86 
Care and anxiety, 49 
Carlyle as a companion, 181 
Cathedrals, origin of, 139 



214 INDEX. 

Catholics admitted to colleges, 85 

Cato, M., quotation from Plutarch's life of, 101 

Cattle, transit of, 15 

— plague, the, 199 
Cats and their masters, 25 

— love for music, 88 

— drowning a, 131 
Central control, office for, 77 
Cervantes, 124 

Character, artists good judges of, 182 

Cholera, 203 

Christianity and modern preaching, 20 

Churchill, quotation from, 144 

Civilisation and horses, 21 

Clearness of expression, 34 

Cobbett on London, 178 

Colleges, admitting Catholics to, 85 

Collie dogs, 24 

'Common-place Book of Thoughts,' quotation from Mrs. 
Jameson's, 99 

Communication with cab-masters, 61 

Companionship, essay on, 163. Universality of, 164. 
Fascinating people, 164. Shakespeare on, 164. Emer- 
son, 165. Personal liking and friendship, 166. Von 
Humboldt, 167. Steadfastness, 168. Talking and si- 
lence, 168. Difference of temperament, 170. Un- 
reasonable expectations of some people, 171. Talking of 
the past, 173. Lord Palmerston, 173, 184. Bores, 174- 
176. Statesmen, 174. Burke, 174. London, 177-179. 
Bishops, 182. Education, 189. Schopenhauer on, 191 

' Compitum,' quotation from Digby's, 124 

Consultation among friends, 5 

' Contrive,' 142, 145 



INDEX. 215 

Control, central, 77 

Conversations, good done by, 6 

Cortes and his treatment of the Indians, 57 
^Courtesy to animals, 101 

Coutts, the Baroness Burdett, 159 

Cranmer, Mr. , and his father, 3 1 

Criticism, hostile, 146 

Cruelties to animals, 8. Inflicted by hirelings, 19. In 
ancient Rome, 92. Inspections as a preventitive, 45. 
Woman's influence over, 43. Public opinion, 44. Spa- 
niards, 125. Pigeon matches, 193. Careless and igno- 
rant, 195 

Culture and familiarity, 9 ; and the bearing-rein, 13-14 

Custine on treatment of animals in Rtfssia, 201 

DE QUINCEY, 148 
Dean, Richard, quoted by Grindon, 100 
Descartes, 63, 73, 88, 125 

Designing, Bishop Berkeley on, 84 ; on law-making, 85 
Details and boredom, 176 
Dialogue, its uses and drawbacks, 7 
'Dialogues on Instinct,' quotation from, 118 
Dickens, 27, 191 

' Dictionnaire philosophique, ' quotation from, 75 
Digby's 'Compitum,' quotation from, 124 
Dinners, wearisomeness of long, 71. Dogs and, 23 
' Discours de la Methode,' 73 
Diseases of Animals, 1 1 
Divine accuracy, 35 
Dobson's translation of Petrarch, 93 
Dogs, 23. ' Fairy, ' 24. Collies, 24. Fuller on, 83 
Double entry and Politics, 147 
Dumb animals, 129 



216 INDEX. 

\ TT CHO,' 'bus horse's letter in, 80 
-■— ' Education, 189; and familiarity, 9; and the bear- 
ing-rein, 31-14 

Ellesmere's anecdote of the cat and Milverton, 131 

' Eloge ' of Voltaire on Descartes, 73 

Emerson, 165; and companionship, 177, 181 

Employers, 61 

Engineer, anecdote of the man of letters and the young, 

183 

Epictetus, 142 
Exceptions, admitting, 90 

FAIRY,' Mr. Milyerton's dog, 24, 54, 65 
Fascinating people, 164 
Familiarity with animals, 9 
Family agreements, 28 
Fathers and sons, 29 
Faust, quotation from, 49 
Fear, sufferings of animals from, 48, 52 
Fines, imposition of, on conquered nations, 137 
Fish, gold-, official life and, 24 
Fox, Barlseus's anecdote of a, 55 
Freeman, Mr., 193 

Frenchman, anecdote of the, riding, 22 
Friends in council, list of the, I 
Friendship and companionship, 165 
Froude, Mr., 181 
Fun, dogs' enjoyment of, 56 
Fuller, 93 



GALEN, 104 
Gardeners and conservatives, 188 



INDEX. 217 

Geese, a case of cruelty to, 113 

Geheimrath, a faulty, 19 

German papers, obscurity in, 36 

Gibbon, 144 

Glass bowl, fish in a, 24 

Goethe, 34, 49, 64, p. 

Gold-fish, 24 

Governmental action, 17 

'Guardian,' quotation from, 121 

Gulliver, 22 

' Gummidgery, ' 191 

TT ALF- WEEKLY post, 38 

■*- -*■ 'Harmonies Economiques,' 1 1 

Heartbeating, 105 

Herbert, George, quotation from the life of, 123 

Hirelings, cruelty inflicted by, 19 

High-companionship, essay on the joys of, 163 

Horses and warfare, 20 ; and civilisation, 2 1 ; noiseless 

when hurt, 21; timidity of, 59; shying, 59; Montaigne 

on, 91 
Hume, David, quotation from, 108 
Hudibras, quotation from, 10 1 
Huskisson, 186 

T M AGINATION and cruelty, 57 
■*■ Immortality of the soul, 96 
— of brutes, 100 
Improving away a likeness, 7 
Inspections to prevent cruelty to animals, 45 
Intellectual victory, love of, 70 
Interference, State, 77, 79 
Ironclads and cathedrals, 139 



2iS INDEX. 



J 



AMESON, Mrs., quotation from, 98, 99 
Jeffery, 181 

Johnson, Dr., quotation from, 193 ; saying about a boat, 3 
Juvenile presumption, 30 



KINGSLEY, 181 
Koran, 157 



LAME horses, 44 
Language, clearness of, 34, 76 
Law-making, 85 
Lavater and expression, 69 
Legislators, born, 85 

Letter from ' 'Bus horse ' in the ' Echo ' newspaper, 80 
— writing, 38 

Lewes, G., and penguins, 104 
Liberty, personal, 77 
Licensing Act, working of the new, 78 
' Light of Nature Pursued,' quotation from, 119 
Likenesses improved away, 7 
Locke, 121 
London society, 177 

Loss to a nation through want of proper care for animals, 1 £ 
Love of parents, 30 

Love-making, Sir John Ellesmere's ideas upon, 6 
Lucid language, 34, 76 
Lucretius, quotation from, 107 
Lytton, Lord, 27 



MACHIAVELLI, quotation from, 140; and Bacon, 138 
'Macmillan's Magazine,' 78 
Matter and soul, 89 



INDEX. 219 

Medecin, and cruelty towards animals, 41 

Meddygon Myddfai, 41 

Memory of cruelty, 57 

Men of letters good companions, 181 

Men's minds, travelling over, 72 

Middle passage, cruelties of the, 1 8 

Mill, John, 77 

Milman, Dean, 181 

Milverton, Mr., upset from a boat, 3 ; rescues a cat from 

drowning, 131 
Montaigne, quotations from, p., 91, 92. Essay on cruelty, 

91. Apology for Raimond de Sebonde, 91. Referred to 

by Pope, 121 
Moore, 181 
Morin, 95 

Mothers' and fathers' feelings, 29 
Mulcts, national, 137 
Munro's translation of Lucretius, 107 

f 

TVJEIGHBOURS, 179 

■*• ^ 'Night Thoughts,' quotation from, 96 

' Nobody does nothing, ' 26 

Noise, making a, when hurt, 2 1 

Nonsense, suiting people's, 150 

North, quotation from Sir Thos., Plutarch's ' Lives,' 100 



OBJECTIONS and exceptions, 90 
Official routine, 24 
Omnibus breaks, 80 
Overcrowding, 18, 112 
Ovid, 104, 121 
Oysters, Thackeray and the, 50 



220 INDEX. 

T)ALEY'S definition of virtue, 98 

-■- Palmerston, Lord, 173, 183-6; and Shakespeare, 

190 
Pamphleteering, a dead thing, 6 
Partnerships in writing, 37 
Past, talking of the, 173 
Penguins, 102, 104 
Pereira, Gomez, 124 
Petrarch, quotation from, 93, 121 
Pets, 23, 24 

Philip van Artevelde. quotation from, 205 
Pigeon matches, 193 
Pleasure-taking, 63 
Pliny, quotation from, 29 
Plutarch, 84, 100 
Poets and animals, 120 
Political talkers, 180 
Post, half-weekly, 38 
Posting in Russia, 201 
Pope, quotation from, 121 
Popularity, Machiavelli on, 140 
Power, loss of time in deciding where to be placed, 45 

— of reason in animals, 65, 108 

Prices increased by overcrowding stock, 18 
Providence and nature, 65 
Public documents, writing, 36 

— opinion, effect of, on cruelties, 44 
Pythagoras, 91 

QUERIST,' Bishop Berkeley's, 84 
Quotations from authors : — 
Addison, 143 
Aquinas, Thos., 88 



INDEX. 221 



Quotations from authors — co?itinued 
Aristotle, 105 
Arnold, Dr., 98 
Arnold, Edwin, 108 
Bacon, 140 
Bastiat, 1 1 
Bayle, 98 
Bentham, J., 99 
Berkeley, 84 
Brougham, 118 
Byron, 206 
Cardan, J., 86 
Churchill, 144 
Emerson, 165 
Fuller, 93 
Galen, 104 
Grindon, 100 
Goethe, p. 65 
Hume, 108 

Jameson, Mrs., 98, 99 
Johnson, Dr., 193 
Lavater, 69 
Machiavelli, 140 
Montaigne, 91, 92 
Morin, 95 
Munro, 107 
Nash, 107 
North, 101 
Ovid, 104 
Petrarch, 93 
Pliny, 29 
Plutarch, 10 1 
Pope, 121 



222 INDEX. 

Quotations from authors — continued 

Racine, 104 

Ramage, 167 

Richter, 153 

Ruskin, p. 

Schiller, 137, 197, 

Schopenhauer, 191 

Seneca, 87 

Spinoza, 106 

Steele, 122 

Tennyson, 164 

Tucker, 119, 194 

Uhland, 125 

Voltaire, 74 

Walton, 123 

Young, 96 

Xenophanes, 108 
From books, &c. : — 

' Beautiful Thoughts from German Authors,' 167 

Bible, 67, 157 

' Bride of Messina,' 197 

' Common Book of Thoughts,' 99 

' Dialogues on Instinct,' 118 

' Dictionnaire philosophique,' 75 

'Dream of Fair Women,' 164 

'Echo,' 80 

' Faust, ' 49 

1 Guardian,' 121 

' Harmonies Economiques,' 11 

' Hesperus,' 153 

1 Hudibras,' 102 

Koran, 157 

' Life of George Herbert,' 123 



INDEX. 223 

Quotations from books, &c. — continued 

1 Life, its Nature, Varieties, and Phenomena,' 100 

1 Light of Nature Pursued,' 194 

* Lucretius,' 107 

Petrarch's 'Lives,' 101 

' Poets of Greece,' 108 

'Querist,' 84 

Racine, 104 

'Revelation of St. Bridget,' 124 

St. Francois d' Assise, 95 

' Summa Totius Theologize,' 88 

' Tatler,' 122 

'Tractatus Teologico-politicus,' 106 

4 Van Artevelde, P.,' 205 

' View of Human Life,' 93 
Quarantine, International, 204 

RACE, influence in the treatment of animals from, 12, 
199 
Racine, quotation from, 104 

Ramage's 'Beautiful Thoughts from German Authors,' 167 
Reasoning powers of animals, 65, 108 
Rebelliousness of young people, 29 
Regulations and liberty, 77 
' Remain, I do not,' 22 
' Reminds me that,' 52 
Revelations of St. Bridget, 124 
Richter, J. P., 153 
Ridicule, evil effects of, 115 
Rights of animals, 44-46 
Rochefoucauld, want of a, among horses, 21 
Romans and public cruelties, 92 
Rogers, 181 



224 INDEX. 

Ruskin, p. and 202 

Russia, treatment of animals in, 200 



ST. BRIDGET, Revelations of, 124 
St. Francis d' Assise, 94 
St. Hilaire, Isidore Geoffroy, on penguins, 105 
Scamps, 30 
Scandal, 25 

Schiller, 36 ; quotation from, 137 
Schopenhauer, 191 

Scotch carters and the bearing-rein, 68 
Scott, Sir W., in London, 180 
Seneca, quotation from, 87 
Sermons about animals, 20 
Service, good, to be requited, 94 
Shakespeare — regard for animals, 95 ; as a companion, 164 ; 

Lord Palmerston and, 190 
Sheep, loss of, from overcrowding, 15 
Ships, cattle-carrying, 15 
Shying horses, 59-60 
Silence over grievances, 21 
Sir Arthur restates arguments, 127 
Smith, Sydney, 181 ; pamphlets, 6 
Sons and fathers, 28 
Sorrel nag, the, 22 

South Kensington Museum anticipated, 84 
Space to be allotted to beasts during transit, 116 
Spaniards and cruelty, 125 
Sport, 192 

Subject of this book, choice of, 1 
Sufferings of animals, 99 
' Summa Totius Theologiae,' 88 



INDEX. 22$ 



Summary of conversation, Sir Arthur's, 127 

Sunday rest for beasts, 63 

Superstition, 41 

Stafford's, Lord, letter to Walpole, 92 

State interference, 77 

— papers, writing, 36 

Steadfastness, 168 

Steele, quotation from, 122 

Storms, effect of, on animals, 95 

Symonds, Prof., 202 



TACT, 208 
Talking of the past, 173; and silence, 168 
* Tatler,' quotation from, 122 
Taylor, Sir H., 206 
Temper, bad, 209 
Tenderness to old age, 93 

Tennyson, quotation from, 164 j as a companion, 181 
"Tention,' 188 
Thackeray's wit, 50 

Theatrical performances, influences from, 122 
Themes, writing, 37 

Theories of Descartes, 88 ; respecting soul and matter, 89 
Theorists, 86 
Timidity of the horse, 59 
Transit Committee, 14, 159 
— of animals, 14, 116 
1 Tractatus Theologico-politicus,' 103, 105 
Travelling over people's minds, 72 



T THLAND, quotation from, 125 

Q 



226 1XDEX. 

VAN ARTEVELDE, quotation from, 205 
Virtue, Paley's definition of, 98 
1 View of Human Life,' quotation from, 93 
Vivisection, 43 ; Voltaire on, 75 
Voltaire and Descartes, 73 
Von Humboldt and companionship, 167 



"\^7ALPOLE, Horace, letter to Lord Stafford, 92; 

* * and Montaigne, 92 
Walton, Isaac, 123 
War, 20, 136 

Water, life compared to boiling, 86 
Waterton's love for animals, 54 
Withers, J., 187, 20S 

Women's influence in preventing cruelty, 43, 117, 208 
Wordsworth, 181 

Writing clearly, 33 ; Lord Palmerston's, 186 
— and criticism, 146 



X7 ENOPHANES, quotation from, 108 

YOUNG people, Pliny on, 29 
Young's ' Night Thoughts,' 96 



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By R. Pearsall Smith. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt extra, 5s. Small 
type Edition, sewed, is. 6d. 

Pernyhurst Court. 

An Everyday Story. By the Author of " Stone Edge." Crown 8vo, 6s. 

" We are indebted to the author of ' Stone Edge ' for another excellent story. 
Female character in all its types is most truly and vividly exemplified. ATe 
cannot call to recollection a book in which women as distinguished froi 
feminine lay figures have displayed so distinguished and diversified a part 
Our author should win the gratitude of her sex for a series of charming portraits 
of what hundreds of English ladies are and may be." — Athenceum. 

Frieuds aud Acquaintances. 

By the Author of " Episodes in an Obscure Life." Crown 8vo, 6s. 

" Every one will remember how the writer, in his former work, gave us some 
glimpses of the country, which were made more beautiful by the dark contrast 
with the squalid life in London alleys and courts. These glimpses have now 
expanded into chapters full of pleasant pictures of country scenery and farm- 
house life. We have never read anything more pastoral and more truly idyllic 
than ' Travels behind a Plough,' and ' Horseshoe Meadow.' These chapters 
are worth whole circulating libraries of fashionable novels.'" — Westminster 
Review. 

De Profundis. 

A Tale of the Social Deposits. By William Gilbert. Crown 8vo, 6s. 

"Mr. Gilbert's novels do more to enlarge the field of actual experience than 
those of any other writer of the day. . . . Defoe and Mr. Gilbert alone of English 
novelists seem to give the ore of English life, while other novelists of equal power 
give only the extracted metal. . . . We think ' De Profundis ' the most powerful 
of Mr. Gilbert's powerful stories." — Spectator. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
DOCTOR AUSTIN'S GUESTS. s SHIRLEY HALL ASYLUM. 
Crown 8vo, 6s. Post 8vo, 10s. 6d. 



POETRY AND FICTION. 



i 
o 



Occupations of a Retired Life. 

By Edward Garrett. Crown 8vo, 6s. 

" Whoever this author may be, he is worthy of a criticism which few critics 
have the good luck to be able to pronounce more than once or twice in a life- 
time If this is not the epitome of a real old man's diary, it is the best 

imitation of reality we have ever come across. We commend these 'Occupa- 
tions ' to the attention of everybody." — Athenaum. * 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



THE CRUST AND THE CAKE. 
Crown 8vo, 6s. 

PREMIUMS PAID TO EXPE- 
RIENCE. 

Crown 8vo, 6s. 



CROOKED PLACES. 

A Family Chronicle. With 
Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 6s. 

" Full of incident, written in a bright, 
crisp, epigrammatic manner." — Non- 
conformist. 



Poems. 

By Dora Greenwell. Enlarged Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 6s. 

" Here is a poet as true as George Herbert, or Henry Vaughan, or our own 
Cowper. We advise our readers to possess the book, and get the joy and the 
surprise of so much real thought and feeling. It is a cardiphonia set to music." 
— North British Review. 

Ivan de Biron ; 

Or, The Russian Court in the Middle of the Last Century. By the 
Author of " Friends in Council." Third Edition. Post 8vo, 6s. 6d. 

" Sir Arthur Helps has not neglected the opportunities offered by his story for 
showing his especial strength, and we have to thank him for what is rare in 
these days — a fresh, original, and instructive novel." — Times. 

"At once an admirable novel, a curious historical study, and an interesting 

collection of profound reflections on life, society, and literature It is full 

of the most original and most delicate touches." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

" The most stirring and popular novel Sir Arthur Helps has written." — British 
Quarterly Review. 

Living Voices. 

Selections from Recent Poetry. With a Preface by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury. Small 8vo, cloth extra, 4s. 6d. 

" We do not know any volume of poetry containing so large a number of 
popular favourites, and published in so cheap and handy a form." — Examiner v 

The Rivulet. 

A Contribution to Sacred Song. By the late T. T. Lynch. Small 
8vo, 3s. 6d. 

" We are glad to welcome a new edition of Mr. Lynch's exquisite collection of 
sacred songs, enlarged to almost double its original dimensions. The supple- 
mentary poems are fully equal to those originally published." — Nonconformist. 

" Whatever beauty comes from broad and liberal views of truth, and from a 
most genuine tenderness of feeling, is never wanting." — Spectator. 



DALDY, ISBISTER, & CO.'S BOOK LIST. 



Loudon Lyrics. 

By Frederick Locker. 



Seventh Edition. Small 8vo, 6s. 



"A more delicious companion on a spring ramble, or in those idle moments 

when the mind requires dainty fare, it would be difficult to meet with In 

his best mood, half-playful, half-pathetic, Mr. Locker has in his own line no 
rival now living." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood. 

By George MacDonald, LL.D. Fifth Thousand. Crown 8vo, 6s. 

" It is as full of music as was Prospero's island ; rich in strains that take the 
ear captive and linger long upon it." — Saturday Review. 

" Whoever reads this story once will read it many times. It shows an almost 
supernatural insight into the workings of the human heart." — Pall Mall 
Gazette. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



THE SEABOARD PARISH. 
Third Thousand. Crown 8vo, 6s. 



WILFRID CUMBERMEDE. 
Third Thousand. Post 8vo, 6s. 



WORKS OF FANCY AND IMAGINATION ; 

Being a Reprint of Poetical and other Works. Pocket-volume 
Edition, in neat case, £2 2s. 

The Volumes are sold separately — /. and VII. at 5s., the others at 4s. each. 

"Mr. George MacDonald is one of the few living authors who, while they 
enjoy a considerable reputation, are greater than their repute. His books are 
well known, are largely read, and are highly esteemed ; but, much as they have 
been praised, there is matter in them which has never been praised enough. . . . 
These ten little green-and-gold volumes, enclosed in a handsome case, contain 
all the author's poems, including 'Within and Without,' ' Phantastes,' 'The 
Portent,' and a charming collection of tales. They abound with a pure, a 
delicate, and yet a vigorous fancy." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

The Starling. 

By Norman Macleod, D.D. With Illustrations by W. Sma,ll. 

Third Thousand. Crown 8vo, 6s. 

"Dr. Macleod's style is admirable. His keen insight and power of analysis 
enable him to draw, not mere stock characters, but real living men and women. 
In many respects, especially in the way in which he draws the lower Scotch 
orders, he reminds us of George Eliot. But, above his artistic power, we value 
the spirit of the tale. Such a story as this, with the fine manly character of 
the Serjeant, ought, in these days of vile sensationalism, to be doubly welcomed. 
We emphatically commend it to our readers." — Westminster Review. 

4 

Forgotten by the World. 

By Mrs. Macquoid, Author of " Patty," &c. Crown 8vo, 6s. 

Gold Elsie. 

By E. Marlitt, Author of "The Old Maid's Secret' ' Crown 8vo, 5s. 

" The book is purity itself. It has throughout the fresh, bright air of the 
Thuringian forests ; and it gives with admirable simplicity a good view of 
German life. It will please all who read it through ; nobody can feel anything 
but regret when the last page has been read." — Scotsman. 



POETRY AND FICTION. 5 

Homer's Iliad in English Rhymed Verse. 

By Charles Merivale, D.C.L., Dean of Ely. 2 vols., demy 8vo, 

cloth extra, 24s. 

" The English reader of this translation will gain a more complete conception 
of the great Hellenic epic than has ever yet been possible for him." — Times. 

My Mother and I. 

By the Author of " John Halifax." With Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 
cloth extra, 5s. 

The Red Flag and other Poems. 

By the Hon. Roden Noel. Small 8vo, 6s. 

" There are poetry and power of a high order in the volume before us. The 
' Red Flag ' is a terrible and thunderous poem. There are fine sympathies with 
the sorrows of London life and wonderful knowledge of them. Perhaps one of 
the most solemn, awful poems of the present century is ' The Vision of the 
Desert.* " — British Quarterly Review. 

Oulita, the Serf. 

A Tragedy. By the Author of " Friends in Council." Pocket-volume 
Edition. Cloth extra, 5s. 

"The finest closet play of modern days." — Westminster Review. 

" The work has long ago taken its place among our standard works of English 
authors. This edition is a very handy one, fit forthe drawing-room table or the 
pocket of the student." — Standard. 

Dorothy Pox. 

By Mrs. Parr. Crown 8vo, 6s. 

u Dorothy is represented as charming all hearts, and she will charm all 
readers .' ' — Times. 

Peasant Life in the North. 

First Series, crown 8vo, 6s. Second Series, crown 8vo, 9s. 

" For graphic portraiture, dramatic clearness, and intense realism of manner 
this volume stands almost by itself. ... A better book as a judicious alterative 
to the exciting circulating-library course of reading could scarcely be con- 
ceived." — Contemporary Review. 

Lazarus and other Poems. 

By E. H. Plumptre, M.A., Professor of Divinity, King's College, 

London. Third Edition. Crown 8vo, 5s. 

" Rich in the results of modern culture ; . . . . beyond mistake the outpour- 
ings of an earnest and affectionate mind." — Guardian. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



MASTER AND SCHOLAR, &c. 

Crown 8vo, 5s. 

THE TRAGEDIES OF SOPHO- 
CLES. 

A New Translation, with an 
Appendix of Rhymed Choruses. 
3rd Edition. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. 



THE TRAGEDIES OF 2ES- 
CHYLOS. 

A New Translation, with a Bio- 
graphical Essay and an Appen- 
dix of Rhymed Choruses. 2nd 
Edition. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. 



I . //L >f/ 



6 DALDY, ISBISTER, & CO.' S BOOJ& LJ^Q 

A Tragedy. By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Translated in 
the original metres by Bayard Taylor. 2 vols., post 8vo, 28s. 

" It can be safely maintained that the rich and varied music of ' Faust ' has 
never before been as faithfully represented to English ears." — Saturday Review. 

Saint Abe and his Seven Wives. 

A Tale of Salt Lake City. Fourth and Enlarged Edition. Crown 
8vo, 5s. 

"The work is masterly." — Graphic. "Amazingly clever." — Nonconformist. 
" Pope would have been proud of these terrible lines." — Spectator. ""Would 
that in England we had humorists who could write as well." — Temple Bar. 

Lars. 

A Pastoral of Norway. By Bayard Taylor. Small 8vo, 3s. 6d. 

" There can be no question but the Norwegian pastoral ' Lars ' is altogether 
the finest poem Mr. Bayard Taylor has written, and not this only, but one of the 
purest, most sweetly moralised romances, which English verse of this time can 
show." — Atlantic Monthly. 

The Huguenot Family in the English Village. 

By Sarah Tytler. With Illustrations. Third Thousand. Crown 
8vo, 6s. 

" Grand'mere Dupuy is the finest creation of English fiction since Romola. 
The Parson's daughters would do no discredit to Oliver Goldsmith." — Morning 
Post. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



LADY BELL. 

A Story of Last Century. With 
Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 6s. 



"NOBLESSE OBLIGE." 

An English Story of To-day. 
Crown 8vo, 6s. 

Fhiloctetes. 

A Metrical Drama after the Antique. By John Leicester Warren. 

Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. 

"The modern ' Philoctetes ' will be read with pleasure by those who have 
loved and admired the old. It deserves to the full as high a place in the litera- 
ture of our time as Mr. Arnold's ' Merope,' or Mr. Swinburne's 'Atalanta in 
Calydon.' " — Contemporary Review. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



ORESTES. 

A Metrical Drama after the 

Antique. Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. 



SEARCHING THE NET. 

A Book of Verses. Cr. 8vo, 6s, 

REHEARSALS. 
Crown 8vo, 6s. 



White Rose and Red. 

A Love Story. By the Author of "St. Abe." Second Edition. Crown 

8vo, 6s. 

"A poem of real genius and true beauty." — Spectator. 
" It is impossible to convey by quotation a true idea of its merits."- 
Athenaum. 



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